The conversation about race and trauma in America at this moment (and for four hundred years) is extremely relevant to art students and art teachers. This episode of On Being with Krista Tippet informs much of what I have had to confront to make artwork
Tis the season where the temps go low and the energy goes high. More to-do-lists, more weather delays, more sugar, more together time, more, more, more! The energy can just get to be too much. There is a joy to the season for many things,
This is my favorite new section of my blog to write, as I have great student results to share with you over the years I have been teaching private lessons. Each Student in the Spotlight post will detail a student’s learning and results in the
I need your vote! Can you please take 2 minutes and register with SXSW to vote for my proposed presentation at the SXSW Edu conference in 2018? Your vote counts for 30% of my chance of getting there to show the world that more kids
Why take drawing lessons? You used to love drawing. Then something happened: They told you, you couldn’t draw well. You couldn’t figure out how to make it look “right”. They told you, you didn’t have “the eye” for it. When you were young, they said,
“Tweaking Is Essential to the Drawing Process (If Steve Jobs Did It, Why Won’t You?) A form of “analysis paralysis” I see my adult drawing students commonly put themselves through is the idea that they have to get something drawn correctly the first time they
Overthinking Could Suffocate Your Drawing Practice Dear Adults: I know we’ve been trained to believe our gray matter is our greatest asset: that our high caliber brain will lead to fame, fortune and the success we aim to achieve. Or at the very least, we
Let me say that again. Your kids can draw the same thing as a college art student! I taught at community colleges and universities for 5 years before I started teaching private lessons full time at LZM Studio. I teach your kids as early as age
In honor of Veterans Day, I am reposting this in hopes of finding more Veterans who can take advantage of this wonderful scholarship opportunity! Please share this with loved ones and friends who are Veterans and thank them for their service today! I am very
Building Patience: Quality Drawings Take Time Part of my work with my clients is convincing them it is expected, necessary and acceptable to take many hours to create artwork. Quality drawings take time. An artist is nothing without building patience. It is not generally going to be
Many of the kids I work with are taking drawing lessons because their parents are hoping to get them into activities that limit their screen time after school. Drawing is tactile; it takes construction skills – even though we are working in two dimensions on
I am very honored to announce my partnership with Small Victories, in offering drawing lessons for students who are recovering and adapting to traumatic brain injuries. Cindy Wright, the Vice President of Small Victories contacted me a few months ago, to invite me to participate.
I often explain to my students that drawing became a less common skill because of the invention of the photograph. In fact when you look at the broad history of art, many of our wackiest art movements began after the invention of photography because it
In this day and age, sometimes artists get a bad rap. Labelled as “sensitive” (as if that were a negative thing?), we all know the stereotype that great artists must suffer for their art (Hey there Hemingway, Helllooo Van Gogh, can ya hear me?!). I’m
One of the things I explain to the parents of children who are taking drawing lessons is that it might take time for their children to integrate what I am teaching them into their own free drawing time. Generally, my rule of thumb is that
I often tell my private lesson students that learning to draw exercises parts of the brain that are sometimes less developed in our culture, but that are helpful for both kids in school and adults in the workplace. Science is starting to show proof of
A lot of people think that kids can’t draw as well as adults- a misconception that is really not true! Many children are open to learning the same techniques that adults can learn in drawing. The problem? Many kids just don’t have access to an
Would you ever compare the skill of drawing to the skill of juggling? How about finding a gorilla on a radiology slide? The process of drawing, like juggling, is a”global skill”, which means it “is made up of component skills that become integrated into a
Based on my experience working with younger kids over the years, I’m going to assert that learning to draw as a child will impact the cognitive function of one’s brain as an adult. I see the changes happening in my young students. I have the
After my summer two week hiatus, I’m back in the studio today. I had some lessons with regular clients, and then had an hour session with two 5 year old cutie-pies who are just meeting with me 1 hour a day for this week, for