After a lesson explaining the use of contour lines, I was so impressed by Dann’s understanding of this lesson and his ability to break down a portrait into simple shapes. We spent the next lesson learning about color blocking and he did a beautiful job abstracting his portrait of his mother. There is a strong balance between abstraction and representational aspects of this piece.
Student Work
When I taught Kindergarten in South Korea, my first 6 months felt like absolute chaos. I wanted to establish a learning environment that was safe, welcoming and conducive for learning but without using tactics of fear, negative feedback, or by dominating the space. I knew as the teacher, it was my responsibility to create an environment of order and structure, but I also felt that the classroom was our shared space and learning was our shared goal. I knew my students wanted to learn and were capable of recognizing their own needs and desires. I had to find a way where we could all work together to create a community that supported each other and worked together. This was as important to me as the curriculum. I also knew that if we were able to create this community, we would have the support to work through the curriculum with less of a struggle. But how could I make this happen?
I began with a foundation of mutual respect. All questions were always answered. If I wanted to be listened to, I needed to listen. All rules were explained, when students understood why we needed certain rules, they struggled less with them. We all wanted to create an enjoyable environment, they just needed to know how. I used the 3 to 1 ratio of positive to negative feedback. I invited them to tell me when certain rules, activities or lessons were not working. They learned to express their needs and we would problem solve the situation together. Students that excelled would work as my helper in explaining concepts and lessons to students that struggled. This way we never moved on from a subject without everyone understanding it, advanced students were able to solidify the information by teaching and the environment was encouraging rather than competitive. I used activities that moved the students around the classroom and engaged different parts of their brains. I sat with them at lunch or playtime and listened to them talk about their lives and interests. When I treated them as equals and with respect, I didn’t need to discipline. I love this picture of Dann. He looks content, engaged, comfortable and self-possessed. This environment was one of my greatest achievements, and I deeply cherish the community we created together.
Channeling Frida
I love Frida Kahlo. I love Frida Kahlo. I love Frida Kahlo. I don’t really care if thats a cliche or unoriginal. I need her. I need proof that someone can live so vivaciously and passionately while facing down death on a daily basis. I’m tired of stories of people with illnesses suffering like heroic angels, never asking for anything or showing any emotion but peace.
I love Frida. I love that she got angry and broke things and locked Diego Rivera (her husband) out of the house. I love that she painted things no one wanted to see. I love that she tried to make sure everyone fell in love with her, because you know what thought plagues me all the time- “Do I let someone love me or not, because I’m sick?” I know it sounds like there’s an obvious answer, but not so much. Because loving someone who is fighting to get their life back is exhausting. Loving someone with so many needs is draining. I hate asking one person for so much. And sick people need so much. Guys I need so much love it’s exhausting.
I’m tired of asking my parents for money. I’m tired of falling in love with work and not being able to go because I’m too sick. I’m tired of dating someone and having to drag my illness along like this skeleton I can’t keep in the closet. I’m tired and angry and sad and want to just be depressed, but also know that physically I demand so much support I can’t imagine asking someone to support me emotionally as well. Thats why I love Frida. She unapologetically asked for everything, experienced sadness, and believed she deserved that.
I guess I’m writing this because I need support. Financially, I haven’t been able to work for a month. I thought maybe it could be fun to have a place where you could donate to my art (like a patron) and if the donation was above $25 I could mail you a collection of prints and sketches from each month, as a sort of thank you.
If you can’t support me financially that’s totally fine. I would just love to hear from you. Any book, music, movie, or podcast suggestion is always appreciated. I love you all so much!
Artist Statement
“Live to manifest Beauty.”
My goal as an artist is to elevate the mundane to the beautiful. I am in no way original in this endeavor. The act of painting can be simplified to just studying something in order to elevate it to beauty. Even if its an abstraction of emotions like Jackson Pollock. Even if it’s the tortures of pain like Frida Kahlo. Even if it’s a soup can like Andy Warhol.
I was thinking about what does the world need, because that is what the aim of art is right? To meet the outcry of the soul or society. I don’t think we need more conflict or anger. I think we just need to see the beauty in front of us. Beauty is everywhere and its what stirs the eternity awake in all of us.
When I say beauty, Im not talking about prettiness or something surface level. Beauty isn’t artificial or far away. It is something in front of you that you have to experience. We live in a culture addicted to glamour and images, because we are starved of beauty. we keep looking in all the wrong places to satisfy the need. We let so much ugliness surround us, in our music, screens, architecture, language, our food, or our thoughts. We let it into our thoughts and how we see the world. We almost seem to seek it, and it regurgitates in how we treat each other, animals and our environment. We seem to find it easier to dwell in the dull and artificial. We’re tired and ugliness dulls and deadens the human spirit. So we convince ourselves that beauty doesn’t belong to us and we allow ugliness to shrivel and thin our lives. We want to believe that we aren’t responsible for the poverty of beauty in our own lives.
Beauty doesn’t belong to the elite and it doesn’t always dwell in the extraordinary. Often times beauty is seeing the extraordinary within the ordinary. The saying that, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” doesn’t necessarily mean that beauty it subjective. Maybe it means that beauty is in the act of beholding.
But what about pain? How do we behold beauty in the midst of immense pain? Even in the most horrendous places, people find within each other a depth of beauty. And I think we have all experienced something painfully beautiful. Like holding someone when they cry, or telling someone that we love goodbye, maybe forever. It’s difficult being alive, but I have yet to find something truly worth while, that wasn’t also challenging, like falling in love or peeling a mango.
How do we find beauty in the mundane? We start looking for things that are just as alive, if not more alive, than you are. Watch clouds roll in, or listen to the wind move the leaves in a tree. Watch a bird take a bath, a dog play or an ant carry a crumb across the floor. When you look for life around you, the world comes alive inside you. If you want beauty in your life you have to manifest it.
Beauty invites us into the graciousness of who we truly are. If you want beauty in your life you have to manifest it. Maybe that’s why we resist. We have to be kind to have beauty. Wherever there is kindness, there is the gentle presence of beauty. Look people deep into their eyes, even if it’s uncomfortable. We’re groggy in awakening to each other. Someone can tell you who they think that they are. But have you ever listened to someone talk, and know that the story you are hearing doesn’t hold a candle to the life that’s in their eyes? There is an immeasurable depth to all of us, we just forget to look. We reduce ourselves and our identities to such shallow things. I’m not going to list them. You know what they are for you. You know how you’re reducing yourself. Lets call out the beauty within and around all of us. I’m calling you to manifest beauty.