…when I actually created a blog. Mm-mm. I was lying in bed this morning on random February day off #2 thinking, Why keep my experiences as a teaching artist to myself when they could be of help to someone? And, Maybe this will keep me in a good habit of learning to write about my work- damned artist statements! Considering I have a list of 11 things to do waiting for me in my office (er, at the kitchen table), why on earth would I throw myself into one more thing? Rhetorical, perhaps. Why one is able to do anything in our Untied States which are seemingly addicted to war, poverty and injustice is beyond me, but we just keep on keepin’ on. Don’t we?
I’m hungry.
I am supposed to be making some vegan cinnamon apple muffins right now to fuel today’s grant-proposal writing endeavour with my beloved brown-panted sound engineer, but (as usual) I got sidetracked and decided to take the leap into the voidless void of the online community to make my very first blog . >snif!< I live in a great web of mystery, it seems, jumping from one thing to the next and then collapsing from my dutiful efforts come nightfall. All in a day-night-middleofthenight’s work for this teaching artist.
What the samhill is a teaching artist, you ask? Well, I won’t box us teaching artists up and ship us off to Corporateland by trying to come up with a universal definition. However, after 8 solid years of being in the business of teaching performance and visual arts outreach to kids who may not have equal access to arts programming in their schools, I have at least come up with some ideas. And that is (some) of what I wanna say on this here bloggy thing. So let us delve into the beautiful messiness together, shall we?
Oh, and the apple cinnamon muffins I managed to bake while writing this, nearly sitting on the cat, checking my email, answering a call, scratching my dear puppy behind the ears, reheating leftovers, watching the 30th day of measurable Chicago snowfall from my kitchen window… those muffins are pretty darned good.
