After 8 years working with young kids, I realized that I have been setting myself up for starting an organization like Art From Awareness. I've worked as a middle school youth program supervisor, a camp counselor and art instructor, and finally, as a volunteer in which I initiated and directed collaborative art projects with youth. What I grew to understand from these experiences is that each child has within them a limitless potential to learn and grow from their own awareness. So, I tried as much as possible to not force on them anything I was teaching. It was important for me to allow the kids to learn at their own pace, in their own way. Instead of pressuring kids to learn, I believe in being patient with the varying pace of each child, so that their own understanding awakens in them. I find the most potential for growth happens when the child is freer to see things naturally, because this encourages them to respond to their own inner self, where the Light is.
My work and volunteer experience has brought me great joy, and has revealed a passion I have for working with kids. At Art From Awareness, I want to be a part of the home school community by offering my skills as an artist and an art historian. My goal is to lead kids towards their inner Light so that they speak and act from God's guidance. That way, no matter where they go, no matter what they do, they will be directed by their own common sense, and respond naturally to what they know is right in their hearts.
Life as an Artist and a Teacher
Before I started Art From Awareness, I spent most of my life developing talents in art. Part of the purpose of this website is to also show my own journey as an artist. In that way, you can see what kind of teacher I would be. After all, the best teachers are the ones that can convey meaning derived from their own experiences and then appeal to the common sense of their students.
Teaching art to a child is truly a delicate matter. That's because children already have the interest and desire to draw or paint. It would be easy for a child then to let their own intuition guide them through the creative process. Yet, a student may need help developing a particular skill, or just a reminder to take it one step at a time. I know as a teacher that it is most important to keep a safe distance, so that the student can ask for help if necessary but still learn on their own. It's this balance of freedom and guidance that must be found in order to properly teach a student about art.
If there is one thing I've learned from working all of these years, kids will learn best how to make art by making it. I didn't learn how to draw because someone told me how to draw, or because I read about how to draw. The best way to learn how to draw is to draw. It is actually when the teachers in my life backed off and gave me the freedom to explore that I learned the most. Although I learned different techniques and methods from my teachers along the way, my confidence as an artist did not come from my teachers, but from my own desire to learn from the process itself. When they let me learn from my own awareness, I flourished.
I can see too the relationship between being confident as an artist and being confident as a person. Of course, confidence comes from the Latin "confideo" which means "with God." Therefore, my goal in Art From Awareness is to inspire confidence in kids, because I believe that is bringing them closer to God within them, and allowing them to rely on this Inner Guidance. If kids can do this with art, they will find themselves doing it in their everyday lives.