Answering The Call

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USSEA ConfThis past weekend I participated in the United States Society for Education Through the Arts (USSEA) and the International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA) conference which turned out to be a fantastic experience. Tim Rollins said during his key note, “You answered the call”. My mind began celebrating the choices I made when it comes to art and education and how the academic preparation along with the experiences in the last 20 years are shaping together a calling I can’t refuse.  What if by answering the call to use the tools, skills, and gifts God had given me I make a difference in someone’s life?

Too many people are concerned about what they can do for the world and just a few pay attention to the impact we can have in individuals. Reaching as many people as we can reach is important and the effort should not be dismissed. However, there is something I learned from the life of Jesus: multitudes will chant your name and at the first chance they have they will turn against you. Multitudes will scatter at the first chance they have but those individuals who had been impacted by your life and teaching will always come back and carry on the vision. That impact is the result of answering the call and do what you do best and do it with love and passion. It is the result of paying attention to the specific needs of the individual and to serve that person as if no one else exists, even if it is for just a few minutes.

As a matter of fact, some individuals are just longing for someone who can acknowledge them at least for a minute. Near us is someone who lacked validation and affirmation from the people closer to them. When we serve them with what we do and what we know they recognize their own value as a person and that finding can unlock a great amount of great things in life. This is why I teach. This is why I have so much passion to share the little I know with everyone I can. It is fantastic to know there are other people all over the world with the same passion. Kudos to all of you who spend time and resources to make a difference through art and education. Thank you for answering the call.

 Join us at one of our sculpting and painting parties!

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Confronted Through Art

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Sculpting and Painting Parties

Being exposed and engaged to art and the creative process is not only fun and educational in many instances but also challenging. When I say challenging I am not only referring to the refocus of motor skills, observation, patience, knowledge, and vision into the creation or understanding of an art piece. The greatest challenge comes when the art piece or the process of creating an art piece opens the doors connecting with our fears and deepest emotions. Mental, emotional, and spiritual issues emerge right in front of our eyes. It is interesting to me to observe how people react when confronted through art. It brings me back to what I said many times:

When we think about art as therapy we think about kids,
but is often the adult who grew up hurt who needs it the most.

During my painting and sculpting parties I try to engage people in conversations about life. I rely on humor to present subjects that are often uncomfortable to people to hear. The creative process allows for people to become vulnerable and often scared of what they find when confronted through art. As an educator it is my duty and responsibility to help people understand and make sense of their thoughts and to explain not only how that connection to themselves is possible through the creative process but also how it connects with life. I aim to help people see each situation from different perspectives, just as a sculpture can be looked at from different sides but it is still one piece.

Available for Presentations. Contact.

It is normal for many individuals to avoid confrontations with the self. Many activities we practice in order to escape our daily reality involve avoidance to our deep self. Silence of the mind is scary so we need to add noise. When the noise is directed towards those thoughts and emotions we are trying to avoid then we run towards complete silence or to revert the noise toward others. It is always easier to confront someone else; it is easier to just walk away or simply change the subject.  However, avoidance of our thoughts, fears, doubts, or memories of traumatic experiences are not going to make them go away.

Justification and passing along “the blame” for one’s current emotional situation is something I observe when conversations “hit home”. I mentioned in previous posts about attribution theory. Attribution theory explains that when it comes to other people we tend to judge internal attributions as personality traits to explain their behavior. “It is because that person is…” Interestingly, when it comes to explain ourselves we “blame” the environment, or the other gender, or our parents, or whatever is not us and how we understand and cope with our situation.

Some people do allow the confrontation and, better yet, show the maturity to face themselves and give a step towards healing and improvement, towards forgiveness, towards understanding the antecedents without succumbing to them but as a stepping stone to a better life. That is also the beauty of art: not that art is going to solve our problems but that it helps us see them and open up. As I learn more about the connection between creativity, neuroscience, and resiliency, and how it connects with our souls and spirits, with our bodies and life, the more intrigue I get about how people cope with their situations when they are confronted through art. Even more, I get more intrigue about how I can I be part of people’s restoration and transformation.

Join one of our sculpting or painting parties

A Busy Month

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View from the training site

It has been a while since I posted in this blog. I appreciate the messages from people asking to write and also the viewers who has been visiting the page on a daily basis to catch up with posts they missed. June has been a great month and there are still a few more things coming up to enter July. This month presented a chance to review previous experiences in different tasks as well as preparation for the task to come. I honestly predicted a boring season but it is quite the opposite.

June began with the opportunity to serve as a consultant as needs analyst (as I like to call the analysis process duties of the instructional designer). I like this process because it allows me to act as a detective. Once a problem is presented, it is my job to weight the evidence and figure out if the perceived problem is the actual problem first of all. If that is the problem, then I suggest options to “fix it”. If the perceived problem is not the actual problem, it is my job to figure out what the issue is before suggesting solutions. That is always a fun process.

The agenda charged through the month. I participated in the Creative Chat Cafe online show (watch video here), had a blast in the painting and sculpting parties, set up a few pieces for our Make.Art.Work. Group Show coming up in July in New Haven, CT, visited a show opening at a gallery, and began experimenting with body painting. This week I am training with a fine group of experienced educators at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, as we prepare to offer the First Year Seminar in Inquiry Based Learning this semester. This is a magnificent experience and I am learning so much from the wisdom of my peers and having fun too. It is a great group.

July is going to be a busy month too. I will be mentoring students offering visual arts workshops to kids. I am really looking forward to this opportunity that came unexpectedly. In addition, the painting and sculpting parties are multiplying and spreading in Milford, Monroe, and New Haven. I will be in Shelton too. That is mentioning only those that are open to the public and not the private ones. The New Haven art show will open and who knows what other things will be in store this month.

Acquiescence

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Life Incomplete

Life Incomplete

“I am not satisfied yet.” “I am not done.” “I am still working on this.” “In progress.” When I am working on a sculpture or a painting I post pictures on social media of the progress and process. Sometimes I take short videos to give viewers a feel of it. Interestingly, some people acquire the pieces before they are complete because of the connection that grows on them seeing the process. It is like they are participating in the creation process. I find it an honor for people to trust me with the finished piece.

On the other hand, I find some people who are not interested in acquiring a piece but are very fast to make comments on them. I appreciate the comments as well. The comments that I find more interesting are those on unfinished pieces saying “Leave it like that”, or “I like it as it is”. Why are those comments interesting to me? If a piece is in progress it means that I am not done yet, therefore I am not going to leave it like that. It is not finished. There is only one person who can tell when an art piece is finished and that is the artist himself. Incomplete is not better than complete.

Those comments make me think of acquiescence. Acquiescence is one of those words that I can hardly pronounce correctly. I found it by looking at the dictionary searching for other expressions for a phrase I heard recently: “passive resignation”. How many times do we apply acquiescence in our lives? How many times do we accept things “as is” without questioning? We often “go with the flow” without asking or questioning if there is something else for us. We often prefer to live unfinished. There is no reason, no need, and no rush to accept less of what our lives could be. Even when we might feel or think we already reached completeness, whatever the process we are in right now, only The Artist can tell when we are complete.

Politeness

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Politeness is one interesting word. According to the dictionary definition it has to do with showing good manners in both behavior and words. It has to do with being courteous, considerate, civil, gentle, and respectful. Being polite requires the practical application of awareness of others. The opposite is the antonyms of the previous description. I understand that the opposite of politeness could be summarized in one word: ‘jerk’. I prefer a more polite definition I used several times before to describe that behavior or type of person if you will: ‘an contemptibly obnoxious person’.

I learned through the years to observe people’s behavior from an analytical standpoint with no intention of judging but to seek understanding. Beyond academic level, naturalization, culture, position, type of job, age, religion, or other social categorizations. I like to see people. Everything else is sometimes an excuse to hide what we really are. In my daily observations I see all kinds of behavior. If you ask me, politeness is like learning to draw, paint, sculpt, learning a sport, playing a musical instrument, or singing. All these things can be learned but not all come naturally to us. You can tell when someone is doing things mechanically because they practice or because it is how it is done in an acceptable manner, but it is not something that flows from that person. Take it from me. I have pictures as a kid with many musical instruments, I went to music lessons, tried to learn how to play the saxophone, the bass, and the guitar, and nothing. I don’t make me tell you about my singing.

How to be polite can be learned, and should be learned. Better yet it should be taught. My family knows that we can’t order food in a restaurant or even a ‘drive-thru’ without the proper acknowledgement of the person serving us at that moment. You say the “good morning”, or whatever applies, followed by “How are you?”, “May I”,”please”, and “thank you”. This is not a script. It needs to flow and it needs to be real with everyone. Sadly our society is lacking the capacity of politeness because each person is focused inwardly and seeking only their own personal satisfaction and selfish desires. That is what flows naturally through many people. I understand that certain traces of personality and insecurities that come with antecedents and social upbringing may play a part in how people relate to one another, but still that is no excuse for not being polite.

Politeness can be learned and should be taught as I mentioned before. In a society where people only love themselves it makes a great difference not only for social health, but for physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Good manners matter. Some people fake it and others follow the rules mechanically trying to let it flow, while others are ‘naturally’ polite. Others rely upon a greater source of ‘power’ to relate to people. As people we have many flaws and fall in the behaviors that satisfy our selfish nature…

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

Galatians 5:22-33