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.