SmART Matters!*
Perhaps I could be called a Renaissance woman for the number of times I have successfully
re-invented myself and my career paths. In each re-creation, two consistent skill sets have made the difference - a comfortable balance between right brain creativity and critical problem-solving, left brain analytical prowess. More on the re-inventions and changed career paths later, but for now, the reasons I have started this blog:
1. Examine the need to provide valid visual arts training/education to children - all children, every age, sex, ethnicity and every learning level ability AND disability,
2. Question why most of our public elementary schools no longer provide visual arts curriculum or teachers for same,
3. Demonstrate/illustrate the remarkable great progress; changes in self esteem, problem solving and self confidence that can be realized when children are immersed in visual arts experiences, if only for an hour or two a week. Because the sky is the limit when visual and other performing arts are integrated with core curriculum themes and projects.
* I am not an elementary school art teacher by official training in college, actually I am a Registered Nurse with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from the University of Akron, Akron, OH.
But I am a Teaching Artist.
- After various professional nursing roles for 12 years, I re-configured into a NERD Nurse; Informatics or HIT as they call it in the hospital world. Computers were getting smaller, the Internet was UP and Running and the medical world was clamoring to computerize its trillions of bytes of patient medical and billing information. There I spent 10 more years having a grand time "converting" physician practices and their staff from paper to computer. Talk about problem-solving skills! Some came along for the CHANGE with speedy learning curves and smiles, while many came KICKING and Screaming, but they all came! 300 separate practices! (Well actually, some quit.) While the medical & computer world has miniaturized to super small hand-held devices and such, the KICKING and Screaming reaction of the humans to CHANGE has remained constant!
- Following some more re-tooling, educationally speaking, I started doing medical/legal research and consulting for medical malpractice cases, both plaintiff and defense side, as well as criminal defense law firms. New initials on the business card - CLNC or Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.
- WOW, what an incredibly different NEW WORLD and I thought I had a reasonably good understanding of patient care, medical records, injuries/accidents, "bad outcomes", medication errors, insurance coverage gaps, record tampering, billing fraud and abuse, and the generally unhappy campers of the many different medical arenas.
- Nope!
- I learned a ton from some of the best and brightest lawyers, paralegals and law firm staffers in Northeast Ohio. Over the past 8 years I have taken part in over 300 cases. All included, from the plaintiff's/family's point of view, varying degrees of sorrow, lose, grief, pain, suffering and irreplaceable life functions, even life itself. There are NO happy, light-hearted medical malpractice cases of merit! And equally unfortunate are the large numbers of people/families who believe they have suffered from a negligent act, but by legal review- have NO case! That number is staggering and growing.
To counter the emotional toll exacted by being involved in the many clients' life crisis, I turned to my original love of art; painting, drawing, sculpture - all right brain activities that mattered to me. Classes, work shops, and my good old kitchen table as
easel! Oh that medicinal salve - the smell of oil paint and thinner! Art work has been my "go to" place since junior high school.
And to this day, I believe that my involvement in visual arts has tempered the sharp edges of the not so uncommon events called my life - ranging from the important but mundane organic chemistry and trig finals, the hours turned to years of waiting for a yet unborn child to the tragic deaths of my parents and picking up the family pieces. The literature holds that I am not the only one who believes this to be true and very possible!
-SmART Mattered THEN and NOW!
SmART Matters!* - Represents the inclusion of science, math and (history) with visual Arts Education in such a way as to integrate all so seamlessly that the children simply think and act like they are having FUN! ( But don't tell the children!) I just simply made this "tag line" up because it sums up HOW I feel about being artistic, being creative, HOW I interact with all children and basically what MATTERS most! When children learn about, create and complete new art projects, and I don't mean crafts, I see many get a
gleam in their eyes and a smile on their face that was NOT present when we started! So my visual arts curriculum/s focus on what really matters, because as we all realize - visual arts competencies ARE NOT MEASURED on any state
aptitude tests! Some folks have asked, "Have you gotten your program copyrighted?" Perhaps I should, as yet I have not.
My current re-invention of "careers" includes teaching visual arts to elementary age children from 2
nd - 8
th grade. As well as the Young at heart. Some students come to my home studio, I go to a local elementary school 3 afternoons a week, as well as our local community art center. All fees paid to me are sent back to either the elementary school's PTA Art Project Fund or the local art center. I am fortunate enough to be able to consider my services "not-for-profit"! or actually PRICELESS!
