In deep waters...

When I started this blog I was in between my first and second semesters as an MFA student, struggling with my role as a teacher and my desire to just make art. Now heading into my third semester and I have learned much from everyone who has contributed. 

The lesson so far... There is not a division between teaching art and making art. Instead it's about learning to live an artful life. How does my life inform my art and my art inform my life? What am I striving for as a person this earth? How can I express my values, goals, fears and hopes through my work? My work is equally teaching and making art. Sometimes I'm deeply engaged in the classroom and other times I need to withdraw a bit and focus on my studio practice. For a long time I was focused on who I am as a teacher. I fully developed my teacher persona. I started to think I needed to abandon that persona and develop and artist persona. Now I see the folly in that approach. There is no persona - just me. I need to know and be who I am, fully, in order to succeed as a creative person. The journey continues, the lessons are good and deep and sometimes painful but mostly the ride is joyful, improbable and beautiful.

Check out the current work of past contributors:

Ryan Canarro  "this hour forward..." Performance installation i Juneau Alaska

Juneau Empire article featuring Ryan Canarro

Jill McLennan at Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland, CA

Jill McLennan: TRESPASS