Melted Frosty, photo copyright Elaine Luther 2015
As I accept or turn away different teaching opportunities, I’ve been writing and reflecting on what my mission is as an art teacher. One of the key motivators for me is helping people be creative, maybe for the first time in a long time. Making art is good for your soul. (ooo, I like that, I think I’ll make a meme of that, here it is.)
“Making art is Good for your soul”, photo copyright Elaine Luther 2016, artist of sculpture unknown.
I’ll be writing more here on the blog about ways you can reconnect to your creativity, through activities, exercises, and fun stuff.
The photo at the top of this post is from my (almost) daily practice, my photo series, “The View Through the Windshield.” These are photos I take, as I’m pulled over by the side of the road, or in parking lots (as in the one above), just things I see as I go about my daily life.
If I do nothing else creative all day, at least I’ve taken some photos. You know what’s cool about a small, daily practice? It builds into something over time! And then you look back and go, “oh! I built that?”
I’ve been doing this photo series for about three years and you can see more of them in the Portfolio tab, above. One of them was chosen by Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach, to be on her blog, and another one was in an Instagram-themed gallery show! I never expected those to happen when I started snapping pictures from my car!
And you know what else I discovered? As I took photos, I started to notice that I take pictures of the same things over and over. I like shadows and rust and faded signs on the sides of buildings and on bridges. You’d think I would have known that already, but I didn’t. And I can take those themes, and the photos themselves, and put them into my collage paintings.
I’ll be writing more about creativity, and to get you started, one of my favorite art teachers, Lisa Sonora, has written this amazing post with 47 different ways to get started and keep going, creatively.
http://lisasonora.com/if-you-want-to-create-47-ways-to-get-started-keep-going
Taking Lisa Sonora’s eCourses has had a profound, positive effect on my creative output and my business success. I can’t recommend her classes highly enough! Here’s a review I wrote of one of her classes:
: ) Yes! Right up our alleys!
Thanks so much!
Yay! Another exciting tiny thing!