Dear Art Parents
I love art.
I love sharing time with children, teens and people in general.
I love sharing art with people.
Art classes offer all the best of life in one. The joy of sharing ideas with children and then watching and /or steering the project or work is always a great joy for me.
Art s viewed by many in todays world, as an added extra. A, something that we do not need but really it is a "nice to have". More than that, many people see themselves as outside of the art experience and cut themselves off with - "I am not artisit at all "or " I can not draw". Saddly , neither of these two possitions are correct.
We are all artsist of one kind or another and we are all surrrounded by art, design and the beauty of the created - all the time. We are just not consious of this truth. People are creative . Thats just we we are. We think and plan and execute creations all the time. From a delicious or simmple meal to the home made out of pieces of card and metal made out of need. Creative thinking is born out of and is spurred on by problems and problem sovling. Visual art hooks into this in a beautiful ad purposeful way. Most art projects we embark on, land up hitting a problem at some point. The success of the project, depends on the success of the problem being solved.
How do I make my tree stand firmly?
How can I join the branches on at an angle?
Can the branch be this long?
What happens at the top of my tree?
These are some of the questions asked yesterday in a small art class.
Proboblems that need some kind of solution.
Much like life, art rflects this aspect and art classes are beautiful , safe places for the solving of problems. Like maths, or science, art is essential to education and art classes are of great help. They are more than a simple add on and refelct the heart beat of life.
Lock down meant that we could not meet together in person . It created a problem which we solved effectively by doing art classes online. These were fun and productive though not perfect. They do have a place.
This has indeed been a strange year. I am grateful for the children and parents that continued to spend time and money, thinking and doing art. Creating spaces for you children and for yourselves to enjoy art and to do art is no small thing.
It is being human.
