Art Lessons

These are two drawings I did 7-10-09 while helping a boy to see shapes.

I've been teaching some private art lessons to kids and adults these past few weeks. It's been a lot of fun. It's a great challenge to turn what I know and then teach it to others or help others discover the artist within them. I have a great passion to help others see and realize that they inherently can draw. It is just remembering from our childhood and also learning to see again and to wonder at what we see.

I believe this very much because this is my story. I never took art in school until my third year in college when all my majors were changing about by the fourth time. I couldn't get what I loved until I had a room mate who was an illustrator major and her boyfriend was also an illustrator major and they taught me a few things. I also had a boyfriend at the time who encouraged me so much. I started practicing. It was still years before things came together. I went to the Netherlands and served a church mission and it was there that I lived in Leiden where Rembrandt was born and I lived in Amsterdam where I got to see the Nightwatch by Rembrandt and other paintings. I lived in Haarlem where we rode our bikes by the Frans Hals museum often. I didn't know much about these artists at all at that point in my life. Then my last place I lived was in Gent Belgium where the Van Eyk altar piece is.

Wow and I didn't realize any of this at that time, but a few years later I traveled back to Europe with the art department and we revisited these sites and then it was simply amazing.

Okay I'm going into memory lane. All because I'm teaching some art classes.

I found the following in a book THE CREATIVE JOURNAL FOR CHILDRENA Guide for Parents, Teachers and Counselors by Lucia Capacchione, Ph.D.

"All human beings are potentially creative and expressive. Unfortunately, in our culture most people think they are untalented or uncreative in art or writing or both. How many times have you heard, or even said, "I can't draw a straight line," or "I'm just not artistic," or "I don't have any talent"?

"These learned beliefs usually stem from criticism of early attempts at self expression. Fear of further ridicule and failure easily leads to the conclusion that you lack talent: a wonderful excuse for not developing abilities. First, you buy the idea that you don't have "it." And if you don't have "it," then you can't possibly use "it." Right? Wrong! It is just this kind of distorted logic based on a mistaken belief that blocks creative growth in any area of activity.

"The truth is that people can't draw because they think they can't and because they never do it. It's as simple as that. They were educated with little or not encouragement, training, or opportunity in art."