Monday, October 31, 2011

Learning to (read, look, name, invent)



My first grade son brought the-above sheet home from school last week containing lists of words.  I love these lists!  (And I can't help but think there is an equivalent studio exercise for me here.)  He continues his immersion in the remarkable state of "learning to read and write."  As I watch him gather more and more words EACH DAY, I try to recall my own state of in-between--the in-between of not-knowing and knowing what words mean.  I do remember first grade some and I do remember feeling giddy about the elaborate, never ending gift of being able to read words, and then whole books!

My second son is in his own place of discovery--no less wonderful to behold.  I watch him as he stares at his own hand.  He gets that this hand is his hand I think.  But he is still trying to unlock the mystical connection between his hand and his hand moving where he wants it to move.  Every day yields a little more progress on that front.

Both remind me of the importance, and the poignance, and the hard work of existing IN the in-between of not-knowing and knowing

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

Lauren Lopez Salazar



One of my former students is on a major roll for her first semester of graduate school.  How absolutely THRILLING to be so inspired by someone who started out in beginning drawing with me!