Last Thursday's Post

I think that my lessons that I have learned as an artist will continue to help me relate to students in the classroom. I feel that it is a teachers responsibility to continue to practice their passion and their craft to continue to be a student, as well as a teacher. I feel that continuing to express myself through my work is vital to maintaing my sanity, my clarity, and to keep me in love with art and teaching.

I think that communication is probably one of the most important, if not the most important, quality that a teacher can have. I want to be able to communicate with my students in a visual way, as well as interpersonal communication skills. Also, I think that the technical skills that artists use  and experiment with make the artist a continuous student of life. The ability to take risks and to be expressive are key to both the artist and the teacher.

I believe that is important to continue to make art while we teach because it is important to develop and to continue to develop our craft. It is important because it makes you a more genuine teacher and educator. I plan to incorporate my work into my teaching to show the kids that in addition to being their teacher, i am still a practicing artist. I also plan to make examples for every single one of my projects to set a standard. They do not have to be able to do what I can do, but it is important to show them that with hard work and dedication, it is possible to achieve great things. I hope to add some of my work into the critiques so they have an opportunity to grade my work and let me know how I can be a better artist and teacher. The relationship between teaching and art making is interlinked and I will continue to push myself to do both things better.

Art needs to be personal to be meaningful. However, the technical skills help express the artists feelings in an intelligent way. It makes the work better and thus makes the art more personal. The better the work is, the better the artist feels about themselves. Technical skills are necessary to be able to speak the language of art and express yourself in a way that makes art understandable to all people.

Artist Trading Cards

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

To me, it seems that even though high school feels like another lifetime, it was not so long ago that I was roaming the halls of my high school looking for trouble. When I think back to my high school experience, I just remember wanting to be in college and thinking: these days cannot possibly be the best days of my life, if they are, I am jumping off a bridge. Thankfully I went to college and discovered a world outside of my small rural community.

I went to a smaller high school, that is to say I knew everyone in my graduating class of 150. On the surface, I don't think anyone could have known how unhappy I was. I fit in with the 'popular' crowd, I was on the high schools prestigious dance team, and I was strong academically. However, I remember feeling very different and alone majority of the time. I made it through high school because of my family, my true friends and my passion for life. However, it is not easy to see who or what has your best interest in high school. I worry that high school students vision of their life only extends to the end of their senior year and that troubles me. But really, it only gets better and I hope to show students that.

To me, the high school social life is an overhyped, oversexed, and over glorified. I hope to guide students away from all the superficial nonsense and encourage the students to peer into themselves to find the strength that they need. Mostly, I worry about classroom management and the harassment of students. I hope I am wrong, but I think high school is just going to get harder for students, emotionally and academically. I am very excited to be there with and for my students. I am excited that I get to inspire students and give them the opportunity to explore another outlet of creativity. I hope to learn more about my craft and the students I will work with daily.

This is the final part of a 3 piece series that I did. The first painting was done in 2001, the second in 2003, and this final painting was completed in 2009.  All three of the paintings are of the same subject, but are represented differently by different colors, races, etc. My parents keep the originals in their house and enjoy looking at a collection to see my growth over the years.