I've launch my "Expressive Workshops" over the summer and so far they have been successful and very popular! I am doing more workshops this fall and will have my schedule up and ready to go for winter soon. My most rewarding part of teaching is when students reflect other artist's styles and have no visual voice of their own per Se. But with my workshops, my main goal is to help students become the creative person and artist they are trying to be. It is fascinating and fun to see them "get it" and know that they have achieved another creative level in their work. It just makes me so happy to see they have stretched themselves beyond what they can imagine for themselves.
With my workshops and classes, I get students to understand the elements of art and the principle of design and to learn a few techniques, then they are free to express themselves as artistically as they want. Some get frustrated and brutally critique themselves for "not getting better" and some are too afraid of "letting go", but I remind them that they are growing and challenging themselves more and more everyday-and that is what makes creating art so much fun! I tell them that they must paint often to become a better artist. We all work very hard-but in the end, we have created art that we want to share with the rest of mankind - to inspire with intentions of whatever our emotions or intelligence wants us to share. Teaching makes me happy and I learn from my students, too. The happy, creative student never ceases to amaze me with what they come up with-and that is the most fun of all!
