animation2The personal experiences that I have encountered within my life and how art has supported me through my hardships is the reason I have such a desire to be an art educator. I want to show my students what a great impact art can have on their lives, because if I did not have art within my life I would not be the person I am today.
For me art has the ability to temporarily take you away from your problems. To me art has a way of making time stop, because when you are absorbed within an art project, time no longer matters. Art makes me feel powerful, it gives me the ability to create, to express myself, and art was the one thing that gave me proof that I was worth something, I was good at something, my art gave me pride. Art was something I was acknowledged for.
As I get older art no longer has as much of a critical stance in my life because I now have control and freedom over my own life, the only person I need to rely on is myself. However as a child you do not maintain any control over what happens in your life , you are dragged into whatever situations your parents or guardians are going through. During that part of a persons life, in my opinion, an artistic outlet becomes the most valuable. I want to provide that outlet to my students, and allow them to see how much art can truly impact their lives.
For those reasons I think exploring identity and realizing your beliefs and struggles that you are experiencing within life is incredibly important to bring into the classroom. These issues are not necessarily something that needs to be discussed openly, since that may be hard for the student, but I feel that it is important to put them into perspective within your own self, and perhaps express them within your work. If a student is going through a hard time, and they do not want to discuss it, it is important for them to be given an outlet to express this pain, whether that be through art or music or even poetry.
In being an art educator my key goal is to allow my students to discover a safe, private outlet that can allow them to be free from the burdens that are put upon them, whether that may be problems at home, problems at school, or even problems they are fighting within themselves.