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,
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
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
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.
This just in: Making art is good for your brain! I’ve known this intuitively for a looooong time. But now the scientists are proving it. I see this all the time with my students, whether they are youngsters, oldsters or in betweensters. Some of it
There has been a lot of talk about the power of doodling lately, as well as visual recording and graphic facilitation of meetings for those in the corporate world. The idea that visual learning is equally valid is an evolution of acceptance that this child
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
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
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
This past weekend I lead some wonderful folks at Dharmata Sangha of Austin in a drawing meditation workshop using drawing as a way to cultivate mindfulness. This group of adults spent 3 hours learning how to use a classical line drawing exercise that I regularly