September 20-24, 2010
Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle. ~Martha Graham
A man who has no imagination has no wings.~-Muhammad Ali
One forges one's style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines. ~Emile Zola
Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle
Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. ~Lewis Carroll
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Daily Thoughts
September 13-17, 2010
I am not afraid. I was born to do this. ~Joan of Arc
First I have a think, and then I put a line around it. ~ Roger Fry
The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. ~Pearl S. Buck
I am an artist... I am here to live out loud. ~Emile Zola
I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners. ~Vincent Van Gogh
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
I am not afraid. I was born to do this. ~Joan of Arc
First I have a think, and then I put a line around it. ~ Roger Fry
The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born. ~Pearl S. Buck
I am an artist... I am here to live out loud. ~Emile Zola
I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners. ~Vincent Van Gogh
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Daily Thoughts
September 7-September 10, 2010
I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. ~Lewis Carroll
The most repeated commandment in the Bible is “Do not fear.” It’s in there over two hundred times. ~ Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
Learn by practice. ~Martha Graham
Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. ~Saint Augustine
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. ~Lewis Carroll
The most repeated commandment in the Bible is “Do not fear.” It’s in there over two hundred times. ~ Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
Learn by practice. ~Martha Graham
Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. ~Saint Augustine
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Amateurs!
I spent three hours yesterday with a bunch of amateurs. Sweaty, nervous amateurs. Not a single SAG, AFTRA or AEA card in the bunch. And the craft service table featured only bananas and cheese sticks.
It was awesome.
Yesterday was the first round of auditions for my school's fall play. Forty kids showed up. These are students with very full lives. They have family obligations, sports practices, demanding classes and lots and lots and lots of homework. But they are at this audition for one reason only. They are amateurs.
Amateur in the true etymological sense of the word; a person who does something for love. These young amateurs arrive at this audition with varying degrees of experience, confidence and training. They are all over the developmental map. But the one thing they all have in common is love: a love for theatre, a love for making music, a love for dancing. They exude joy.
As Teaching Artists, we strive to instill in our students a level of professionalism, a respect for our individual artistic disciplines, and a tangible toolbox full of skills for their own artistic journey. And yet, as we impart the values of professionalism, let us be careful to leave their love of the art intact. Let them remain amateurs; let them do it all for love.
It was awesome.
Yesterday was the first round of auditions for my school's fall play. Forty kids showed up. These are students with very full lives. They have family obligations, sports practices, demanding classes and lots and lots and lots of homework. But they are at this audition for one reason only. They are amateurs.
Amateur in the true etymological sense of the word; a person who does something for love. These young amateurs arrive at this audition with varying degrees of experience, confidence and training. They are all over the developmental map. But the one thing they all have in common is love: a love for theatre, a love for making music, a love for dancing. They exude joy.
As Teaching Artists, we strive to instill in our students a level of professionalism, a respect for our individual artistic disciplines, and a tangible toolbox full of skills for their own artistic journey. And yet, as we impart the values of professionalism, let us be careful to leave their love of the art intact. Let them remain amateurs; let them do it all for love.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Daily Thoughts
August 30-September 3, 2010
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. ~Jonathan Swift
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Goethe
In my beginning is my end. ~T. S. Eliot
You begin with the possibilities of the material.~ Robert Rauschenberg
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.~Plato
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. ~Jonathan Swift
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Goethe
In my beginning is my end. ~T. S. Eliot
You begin with the possibilities of the material.~ Robert Rauschenberg
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.~Plato
If you wish to receive these daily thoughts as an email every Monday through Friday, please send me an email at artistthoughts@gmail.com and I will add you to my distribution list.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Begin Again
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carroll
The first day of school is here. For Teaching Artists who work in schools, the early rhythms established by our own school days come back to us with ease. We who spend our lives in schools have the satisfaction of completing one year, with all its triumphs and disappointments, tying it up in the neat bow of commencement and putting it on the shelf. Another year behind us. A great year, a not-so-great year, it really doesn't matter, for whether we are sorry or thrilled to see it end nothing can make it last a moment longer.
Some might then have a summer of rest, or move on to other work for a season. Perhaps we travel, or putter at home, or dive into our own artistic projects with enthusiasm. But at the end of that season, the old familiar feelings return. It's time for another year. Another crop of students. New ideas are born and old assumptions challenged. The real new year arrives, not with the false gaity of New Year's Eve champagne and party hats, but with the serious business of books and lectures and brown bag lunches.
The first day of school is here, and it is time to begin again.
The first day of school is here. For Teaching Artists who work in schools, the early rhythms established by our own school days come back to us with ease. We who spend our lives in schools have the satisfaction of completing one year, with all its triumphs and disappointments, tying it up in the neat bow of commencement and putting it on the shelf. Another year behind us. A great year, a not-so-great year, it really doesn't matter, for whether we are sorry or thrilled to see it end nothing can make it last a moment longer.
Some might then have a summer of rest, or move on to other work for a season. Perhaps we travel, or putter at home, or dive into our own artistic projects with enthusiasm. But at the end of that season, the old familiar feelings return. It's time for another year. Another crop of students. New ideas are born and old assumptions challenged. The real new year arrives, not with the false gaity of New Year's Eve champagne and party hats, but with the serious business of books and lectures and brown bag lunches.
The first day of school is here, and it is time to begin again.
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