Catherine Connell
Philosophy of Teaching Art
I am a true believer that creativeness is an innate component of our collective humanness, our spirit, our endeavor. How we choose to interpret and utilize creative knowledge is reflected in our accomplishments, our survival and our conceptual theories of our future aspirations.
Creative expression allows us to thrive. Some of us are the creative force; others appreciate and continue to expand the rewards of this energy.
As an Art educator, my mission will be to introduce my students to a strong foundation of Art and design concepts with the goal that these will provide useful purpose and inspiration for them, as they live their lives. To cultivate the imagination is to initiate the creative thinking that enables and challenges all of us to successfully search, achieve, invent, and express.
Some students are technically skilled at art-making, but not necessarily creative in their ideas. Some students will perhaps not be as gifted in technique and producing, but have a keen sense of aesthetic understanding and appreciation. It’s all good. It’s just a matter of helping them navigate how it will apply and work for them.
The issue for me as a “guider” is how to expose and open students up to Art in a way that makes it meaningful and valuable to them regardless of their talent level, their cultural individuality, their vocational interest, or their receptiveness. What can Art and Art understanding do for them in the real world? How will it enrich their lives? their education? the way they live? the way they view the world? And how may this understanding enhance their inter-personal awareness of others?
It is important to learn how Art is made, analyzed, spoken, visualized, and is an authentic element to defining ourselves individually and as a whole. Students should and can benefit from such information. We live in a big world, within a brief moment in time, we all will create understanding, create our own histories, and create knowledge for those who will continue our existence. As both a timeless and an internationally understood language, Art can enrich the present time and provide a graceful legacy, as we expand and leave our mark on future frontiers.
Personally I try to learn something “new” every day. Gaining insight and modern thinking from young minds will only benefit my world and language of teaching for the better.