Spirit Land

Spirit Land

20x30"

Mixed Media on Canvas

Painting #96 - This painting was completed for an exhibition I'm organizing for teachers and students called, How Do the Arts Help Me Grow? Below is my narrative that will accompany my painting in our exhibition catalogue.

             I’m an artist, educator and a small art business owner. I consider these roles to be interrelated and equally dependent aspects of my creativity. I’ve been teaching art to preteen and teenagers for 15 years for the Calgary Board of Education.

            The arts support my cognitive and affective development. Given that my mind and senses are connected by the same bloodline, I know I must nourish both to support my growth. Painting provides a platform for me to reflect on what I know, to research what I need to know, and to create new knowledge. It engages my senses, emotions and imagination, and it refines my perceptions. Through the act of creating, I become more qualitatively intelligent.

            Spirit Land was created from a photograph taken while on a field trip to Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. The soil is as important to the land, as arts education is to our students. The arts provide learners with the multiple forms of literacy that they require to participate in our culture and that do justice to their broad and exuberant minds.