Reflection on the work, finding you.

My 3^rd graders and I were talking about next steps for our clay sculptures the other day during one of my afterschool clay studio classes. While we talked about options of creating a standing or a sitting gargoyle and the implications between the two, one of my student asked me in his 3^rd grader way ‘…how many pieces do you Ms. Buhr make in a day…’ I had to think about this and as I was considering his question another student said in her 3^rd grader way ‘ … Good question George!’ I agreed with Fallon. Good question. And then we thought it through. I see 6 sections per day and do a demonstration or two per section so that would equate to approximately 12 activities of that are art making in a school day. And if we expand this to a full rotation, I see 24 sections of students times this by the average of 12 art making activities per day and we have a total of 288 art making activities over a 12 day period. And to this George said, ‘Cool…’

I had never thought about my job by counting up   moments in a day and in a rotation of art making, the decisions and the conferencing and the cleaning.   I love art.  I love art as though it were another person. When I have said this in job interviews it has made the panel a bit uncomfortable. But it is true. Making art for me is challenging and seamless. There are times when I demonstrate I have a small anxious moment that I might not be able to do the work. And to think this might happen 12 times in a day was admittedly unsettling.   I have never counted these moments because I am focused on the class, on the work. Each demonstration or art making activity is unique. Unique to the group, where they are in the process and where they are headed.  Art making, the guiding and following have been the labor that is art education. A labor that is deeply grounded in studio practice, a vocation that is built on the mystery of learning and curiosity and a work that attends with a profound respect for art.

I have never had a struggle finding work. At one point in my two years in graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art outside of Detroit, Michigan I had 8 W2s.   To be clear this meant I had worked 8 different jobs over the course of a year.   These were things like: being a studio assistant, working as a contract installer in Cranbrook’s Museum, working in a flower shop and my personal favorite, working in the mailroom at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Not a problem finding work. I have always worked. So when I came to teaching in the clay program at the Arvada Center, and Drawing I and II at Metro State and sculpture at University of Colorado at Denver and in the children’s program at the Denver Art Museum and in the summer camps and arts days at the Museum of Outdoor Arts. I was surprised when the work, the gift of being side by side with creativity and another person, found me.  

 I discovered that teaching art and studio practice run in a woven path.  The challenge, vulnerability and curiosity that are always present in the creative process I realized were now a shared experience and had become marvelous and interesting when explored in the classroom.   From working with the teachers as the Visual Arts Content Coordinator in Jefferson County to working with the students at Normandy Elementary School in Jefferson County and at the Arts Students League of Denver, the privilege of facilitating, guiding and following the imaginative and inventive directions of all students is an honor.  

Following and leading are often the same actions.  It is about attending to the work. Attending to the idea. Attending to the process.

The action of Attending To is a daily practice of work. I began to understand daily practice while literally watering the grass that was growing from a sculpture of a chair I had build from straw and started on fire.  The grass had grown from the chair after the fire was dowsed with water. One of my professors brought to light the practice of attending to in a walk through for my comprehensive portfolio when he said ‘…this when the idea and the material and the maker hold hands… none is leading or following… all are walking side by side…’

Watering the chair for the weeks prior to and during my comprehensive show is an action I carry with me always in the studio and the studio classroom. For my students, the materials we are working with the ideas we gather around, none are either leading or following.   We learn from one another.  We are talking about our process.  We endeavor to hold hands with content and material to the extent   we are as a collective both leading and following.

 I am an art educator who continues to be certain about art. Continues to be certain about the mystery that is learning. Continues to be grounded in not knowing.  And waters the grass, leads and follows my students through process.

CAEA 2013  Art Educator of the Year Award acceptance speech