Words for the Amazing Artists I Teach!

Today we had are art reception for my ART students. Everyone was really shy about the recognition. Except a few! What does art mean to you? Jose the creator of Hope the picture above was eloquent about his vision of becoming a professional artist.

Congratulations!!

This is a happy art day.

I want you to realize how amazing this is….and how

PRICELESS THIS EXPERIENCE IS! We are acknowledging and recognizing you! your creativity and imagination!

“Imagination is more important than knowledge-“- Einstein

Meaning

· That your art is powerful and moving

· That your imagination and creativity is priceless

· ART IS A LIFE SKILL THAT YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU WHERE EVER YOU GO

· Your personal story has been told through your art

Connection

· with countless amounts of people who saw your ART in public

· They were very moved by your individual work

· The people that collected/bought your work were so touched that they had brought it to be in their lives

Success

· There is over 75 million children in the USA and

there is no other school in the United States that has a program like this! Where they actually sell you work

· Very few talented artists in this world ever sell their work

· One of the most successful artists/famous Vangogh never sold a painting while he was alive. His latest work sold auction for 82 MILLION

· Your are all super successful

Congratulations!!! On your PRICELESS SUCCESS!!!

Through your ART!

‘Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up.’ Pablo Picasso.

Lastest Tree Shrine and a Reflection

I think all artists are obsessed with placement. Creativity is about placement. Meaning placement of intentions and objects to create a new. Every brush stroke that a painter paints is about placement. And this can be totally impulsive, intuitive, unconscious or thought out. Our obsession with placement brings about a vibrational quality within our work. I think as artist we also validate and embrace successful placement. As I write this I am on my hammock in my garden. I am surrounded by the glory of nature. What captures my attention is the marvel of the small spider and its perfection of placement.



The decayed sculpture is what is left from my undergraduate final which was in 2003.
I love how it has weathered. Today I created a natural tree shrine. I was driven to circle the trunk of the tree with flowers. When I completed I found this antler and thought it looked amazing next to my decaying sculpture.



It is all about placement!

Random Interactions #10

Today in Trader Joes parking lot an elderly black man approached me first asking for spark plugs and then asked for money--a $ 1.83. I explained I had no money and he looked me. And said you should be in the movies. I said what and he said you should really be in the movies. I laughed....
What does that mean? OK I will take it!

Collecting Hubris, Haughty and Angry-Art Teacher Stories

"You are hopeless."
her highschool art teacher laughs at her art and made her switch to Shop class instead. This was the story I heard today at our school BBQ from Lauren who is one of the Counselors were I teach art.

What is your worst art teacher experience?
Why is this prevalent in the art education experience?

Let me preface this conversation with I am art teacher/therapist. As an art teacher/therapist/mentor. My Rule number one is to create a safe container/space where judgement is suspended for creativity and imagination to flourish. The seed has to grow and then you can trim it a bit,just like a rose-when it is bloom. Maybe I became an art teacher rectify my trauma.

Also, a major goal of Art is Moving's is to get more people to create and to talk about their art experience. The more that I speak to people about their own childhood art experience, the more the conversation tends to shift to a moment of trauma. They usually share with me a horror story of how an art teacher killed their creativity.

Here is mine...
"In fifth grade we were making crafty clay turtles. My teacher Ms. Bison (who was a nun--although it was a public school) saw my turtle and she got really angry. She in a tizzy was like this is all wrong and she destroyed it."

I also remember one my art students Gary,who was sixteen said, "that my teacher would not let me create anything. He said I was so bad that he made me clean the class. I was the custodian."


I really want to hear your stories. Please send them to artismoving@gmail.com
I also want to know did this stop you from creating?

Life Stories

Powerful image!
This is on going series of video interviews that I did with the children I work with at LCC. I have competed ten students. The project was stopped as our video camera was stolen by one of the kids. I hope to continue this project. We need to source up a video camera. ASAP

Engaging Children with Art-Radio Interview

DON'T MISS "Social Studies" on BlogTalkRadio! Special guests are Lisa Rasmussen and Heidi Peden, who will discuss their experiences working with children, the impact of art on children's lives, the importance of art in education, and techniques and tips for engaging children in art that goes beyond the Refrigerator!


Engaging Children with Art

Thanks E Marie for the interview!

WiThin Place

As an artist one of my greatest fears is people will not get it, my work that is. Although, this never does stop me from creating, it is a conversation I have with myself about the audience and that relationship that is developed when they view/aborb my art. Here is what one of my peers thought about my work! I love this!!


WiThin Places
JJ Levine
Sitting unassumingly at a crossroads like a seeker awaiting their next life path, the
artist watches the art exhibit unfold. Patrons arrive, some familiar with the territory being presented, some just to immerse themselves in the creative atmosphere they love so much. The space held together by the works ofMFA graduate student, Lisa Rasmussen.
Her paintings, photographs and installations on display this evening straddle the realms of inspiration, inner sight, and cross cultural phenomenon.
With healing light as the chosen medium, the artist openly invites anyone brave or
willing enough to trek mountain ranges of the psyche, whether that is perceived as
personal or collective. Voyagers around the room are spotted preparing to depart on
guided expeditions with individually assigned sherpas of the light, inter-dimensional
spirit guides, wielding paint while walking between the worlds. Operating in the neoshamanistic world of creativity as ritual, Ms Rasmussen assigns art materials to their app~opriate posts. Lines, stains and fields come alive with pigmented intention, making
the Prrceiver's reality feel like the rug just got pulled out from underneath them.
Lisa's sacred intentions are painted multi-dimensionally, making marks on canvases with
ancient symbols, and then layering over with an image that the viewer finally sees. Thepresence of the Earth Mother herself is felt sweeping to and fro on a ground of premeditated archaic ecstasyl; an inter ection between Spirituality, Divinity and the spacetime continuum. Her artworks, when feeling into them like portals, open up like
windows into alternate possibilities. While standing in front of one of Lisa's paintings, I fell into it, falling into a wormhole showing another time and space. I saw a tunnel with a bear's sleeping space similar to one I had seen while recently visiting Aillwee Cave in Ireland. Upon returning to present reality, I could feel that my vision and the painting were connected somehow, through the energetics ofplace and time. Some would say that that space holds a frequency that is both emotionally and spiritually familiar. However, be weary, young travelers, for there is a dark side to the Thin Places that we are shown, that may not be otherwise realized. Another side pnvy to the naIve, the courageous, the initiated, or even the uninitiated is that of the darkness of man's ascent away from nature. Viewers intending to spend "Si..mday afternoon in the park,,2, are instead confronted with reflections of the black waters of their earthly existence.
Lisa Rasmussen has that angle covered as well; with artist's integrity, and angel's
guidance, she skillfully breathes life into the void. Taking the mirrors handed to
unsuspecting purveyors, the artist smashes them with subconscious, yet idyllic~ imagery.
The artist personally guides the viewer into her private life of meditative memories,
artistic discipline and spiritual discovery.

Is there a comment that someone said about your art that has stuck with you? This is Art is Movings question of the month. Please send us your stories!