The later half of last week was filled with work all the while I had a terrible cold. I was wandering around blowing my nose, business on top, party on the bottom with sweatpants and crocs. This also coincided nicely with the first sunny weekend in a long time- so I spent the evenings slowly walking the dogs hopped up on cold medicine trying to soak up as much sun as I could. When I am sick and I have to work- the sometimes unavoidable drawback of being your own employer- I ask myself how I can make this more enjoyable and it often involves a hot shower and working in sweats while watching movies. So that’s what I did. I watched all the Alien movies, reminded myself that even David Fincher makes terrible things, and reaffirmed that the first two in the franchise are the best and that Alien: Resurrection is simultaneously kinda good and also so fucking weird, the mother aspect is just horrific and not in a fun way.
This weekend, as I subsisted on cold medicine and ricolas, I had the joy of inviting an artist guest into my Yellow Brick Road 2 class. Nicholas Stevenson is an artist and teacher who I started following back in 2010 or 11 on tumblr. Over the years we have gotten to be internet friends and its been so cool to see his creative career grow into what it is now. In his talk to my class he shared a lot about how he views mystery and play in his work. One of the things he said when asked about his practice, that I have been thinking about, is that teaching is an essential part of his practice. I have spent a lot of time viewing teaching as a separate thing from my practice, something that financially supports it perhaps- but then again it doesn’t really- and have gone back and forth about teaching and he named something that I only in the last year or two have been able to name. Teaching is essential to my creative practice.
So I thought I would spend some time rambling about thoughts on teaching but first, please remember (this is a note for you and for me) that I am a human who can’t contain all the thoughts and feelings I have into my writing. I also change my mind and perspective, so these things are not forever certain, they just exist now.
One thing about me is that I always have had this sneaky way of finding myself in positions of teaching. I was that kid teaching other kids to swim in swim lessons by the age of 12, I became a coach at 15. This is not a brag about being some sort of teaching prodigy, my ability to be that bossy kid on the playground has not shockingly caused me a lot of frustration and conflict with others, of course, but mainly with myself. I always have been a yes person, I love tasks and problem solving. When it comes to sharing knowledge and taking on more responsibility for others before myself, I used to eat that shit up. A great thing on the surface, a frustrating thing when you are trying to just make rent so you have more time to paint. As I moved into working in the food industry in my 20s, I always found myself moving from bartending or serving into management positions- which if you work in the food industry for any amount of time you know that the managers have the longest hours and do not make as much money as the bartenders and servers. So I was an eager and helpful self-sabotager. Excellent! You can find me in the back, helping others first, saying yes to others first, and then sometimes when I have energy leftover, yes to myself.
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