"Karen Chilman" <ChilArt@peoplepc.com> wrote:
> I am currently researching for a masters course and am
> wondering how many art teachers really wanted to be
> artists
Hi
As for "wanting" to be an artist, I am one. I am an
artist who teaches and that too is my art. (I also costume
shows, write poetry, make puppets and do puppet
productions) Could I live on my other "art?" I have worked
as a commercial artist, and have done three commissions of
puppets, two for theater, and one for a speech therapist,
and have costumed shows and received honors for it. But to
prove my point that I am a teacher first, I am teaching in
3 different departments this year, Social Studies (Gifted
program is under this heading), English (Diversity
Studies-literature Class) and Art (One Advanced Art, and 2
Beginning classes). I have been known to cockily say that
I could teach anything provided I had a clue about the
subject matter. I probably could feign everything if I had
to but calculus (got a D in that in college~although I did
enter college as a math major). As I would any other art,
I continually question, hone, critique, add to and
subtract from, my art-teaching. I hang it out there for
all to see, and NEVER do it the same way twice, but may
pick a "theme" and run with it. My teaching, as is with my
other 'art', is not formulaic but a living breathing
entity that grows as I do. As with all art, I have truths
to share, and proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with all
others who have taught and made art through history.
