Transferability of Creativity

I used to believe that teaching art varied little and when I became a teacher I would have a really difficult time coming up with individual projects. I felt I was a creative, but not an imaginative person. My elementary + middle school education consisted of cookie cutter projects that had little to no student choice. In high school this improved, but it wasn't until college that I felt my practice really blossomed. Every day I am learning to create differently + in a more loose, fluid manner. I had a very interesting experience during my practicum work at Conrad Ball Middle School that really changed my perspective on how art class affects different content areas.
I had the opportunity to be placed in a traditional art classroom, but felt the need to challenge myself + see the creative process in a new light. In Mr. Brown's classroom I was very pleased to see the integration of the design cycle in a technology class. I have found in college that sculpture is one of my passions, hence my  request to be placed  in a course that focuses on construction + tool exploration. I wanted to experience a classroom that may integrate art practices, but in a different light. I gained a new confidence in the flexibility of my knowledge + teaching ability by integrating myself in this different, but slightly familiar environment + being an advocate  for the artistic side of engineering. For me, this reinforced the fact that the arts are incredibly transferrable to a multiplicity of content areas, therefore validating the importance + need for support of the arts as a key component in public education.
Now, I feel more eager to find what my future holds as an educator as more and more doors are opening for me. I am seeing on a wider spectrum the applicability of creativity + the potential to spread it, promote it, prompt it, etc. in content areas that people leave it behind. The arts could really benefit the creative processes in multiple areas, so I am excited to have a larger role as an advocate for the arts when I hold a teaching position. I would even be enthralled by the idea of teaching wood shop at a high school or middle school level just to see how much I could push it. As I am exploring more materials + how they can be used in different environments, I'm becoming more + more excited for the future. 

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My art piece this week is inspired by loose exploration of a visual reference. I am pushing myself recently to explore art in different ways that I am uncomfortable with, or feel less confident doing. In creating this drawing I tried to choose colors that were simply pleasing to me visually, versus trying to represent the landscape literally. In doing so, I felt it actually turned out more satisfying than if I had tried to replicate the colors I had found. I've found working this way has helped me become more creative in my practice, resourceful if you will. The imagery, a river, is also pertinent to my blog theme this week. I am practicing "going with the flow", being less rigid about the definition of art (because there truly isn't one) and finding beauty + art in "the everyday". I believe art is incredibly transferrable, present, and constant--an idea I would like to promote now + to the future education board at whatever school I end up teaching at.