Last night I had the chance to be on a panel with three distinguished educators—Bob Bates, founder of Inner City Arts in Los Angeles, a program that works with 350-500 kids per week giving them the chance to make art; Dr. Eric Cooper, founder of The Urban Alliance which advocates for inner city kids reaching their full potential in education; and principal, Debbie David, of St James private school in Los Angeles who rallied parents to provide funding for an art studio on the school and art programs. It was an honor to be included as a working artist who teaches adults. It was heartening to hear of the great work my co-panelists are doing and the way we have all experienced the power of art to teach self-esteem, problem solving, creative thinking and happiness.

The show was inspired by an article on The Huffington Post about Andrew Bott, principal of the Orchard Gardens Elementary School, in inner city Boston, which was rife with disorder and low test scores when he took over in 2010. Among his interventions was replacing 80% of the teachers, firing the security staff and hiring art teachers instead. The results were a dramatic reduction in mayhem and much higher test scores.

So what exactly does art do? First, even with minimal skills, people are able to express themselves, an empowering experience. We all have a deep desire to simply be seen and heard.

As we go farther in our art making we begin to discover who we are, what the particular nature of our hand is, what our interests are, our strengths and even our character. Kids often use art to express feelings and to try to master them. What’s great is that the simple act of making art brings us out of our habitual thoughts and everyday experiences into a place of one-pointed focus and presence no matter what we make. Art helps us observe life from a less entangled perspective. It teaches us how to be present, to think clearly and have a calm mind.

Bob Bates pointed out that if we could infuse the first twelve years of every child’s life with art, music and dance, kids would grow up to be strong, confident and aware. It would change our society.

The question we were asked was if schools integrated art into the whole curriculum would be be able to do away with the reliance on security guards to keep our schools safe. As Dr. Eric Cooper pointed out, educating the whole child is healing and empowering. It’s a far better strategy to focus on the positive.

You can see our chat here — <iframe src=”http://embed.live.huffingtonpost.com/HPLEmbedPlayer/?segmentId=5182ff5502a7603646000358″ width=”480″ height=”270″ frameBorder=”0″ scrollable=”no”></iframe>.

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Last week we were visited by tragic events in Boston with the bombing at the Marathon. A few days later, on Friday, I looked out our kitchen window and spotted these troopers. As the day progressed things got worse—at one point we had three tanks in front of the house, a trooper in the bedroom using the window as a lookout and one stationed on the back deck with rifle poised. Not long after they found the suspect in the boat of an old family friend, wounded. Such sad events. And they made me think how we artists can be a force for positive change. Isn’t that the ultimate purpose of art—to help us wake up to beauty and to a knowledge of our own true selves? I know I’m not alone in reflecting on what we can do to prevent such suffering. It has given me many thoughts for future work. Everything matters—especially every positive thing we make. May wondrous good come out of these sad events.

After posting the first batch of these collages (see last post) on Facebook, my friend, Pier Mantovani, said they called out for a title. I immediately felt he was right. After adding a black spot to the first collage here, a title came to me for the series—”Should You Fall Into a Black Hole, Do Not be Alarmed!”. The title gives meaning and the collage, in its quirky, non-literal way, adds a little ooomph to the idea. Well, I like how the image makes me ponder the idea. Once I have more of these I’ll be putting them up on Etsy. Stay tuned.

It’s spring here in Boston but still chilly. Wishing us all a little warmth and sunshine!

In the winter session of The Saturday Morning Drawing Club we worked exclusively with painted paper collages. The first few weeks we went abstract then we moved into more representational work. Everyone does such different things given the same instructions. Collage is an assemblage of disparate parts; often of found images or colors or textures. How do we say something with it? These are what I ended up with after a few weeks. I was feeling the energy of spring approaching. These collages are an expression of feeling done without premeditation, allowing whatever wanted to show up to show up. They are small meditations—each about 4″ or 5″ square..

I’m working on more of these to see where the energy might go over time and what will get expressed. But here are the first five. An ode to spring. Happy spring!

“When We Open Our Eyes After a Long Sleep, We See Everything Is Blooming”

Hello!  Back again on the blog after a long period of work on the new book—MAKING ART A PRACTICE / How to Be the Artist You Are. It follows on from my first book, THE CONFIDENT CREATIVE/Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind, and  offers 30 practices to connect with the creative Self that is at the core of all of us. So often, we question what art is, what it can do, where we fit as artists. In this book, we turn the inquiry inward—what moves us forward, what opens us up to our true creativity and allows us easy access to inspiration? How can we come to know ourselves and do what we’re here to do? How do we find creative freedom and work from the heart as well as the head?

The book contains inspirational art by 20 extraordinary artists from six countries including the U.S., the U.K., Italy, Spain, Belgium, France and Canada. The art is varied—illustration, collage, sculpture, fiber, painting and drawing. The book will be released summer 2013 and is published by Findhorn Press.

Thanks for visiting!

There are so many ways that art enters our lives these days. I like the casual contact on the street, the way we see art in the design of a chair or a storefront, in graffiti and the way people dress. In Paris, it’s intoxicating—so much great design. On this rainy Sunday in Boston, I’m browsing through some photos I took last spring when I got to pop over from London to visit my friend, Sophie Gravel, for the day. All of these photos were taken on a three block walk from the Musée D’Orsay, where the picture of the big glass clock opens to a view of Paris. We went into an arty art store at the end of the day—too pricey but a visual treat. Now to try to up the Paris style here!

Sometimes when I do upside-down or blind contour drawing with people, they have trouble seeing how great their drawings are. We’re taught in school to get things “right” and these just aren’t, which is why I love them so much. So much personality! And energy and tenderness, with such interesting mistakes. And so easy to see each person’s unique and fantastic hand. Thanks to the wonderful students at Bay Path College who did these great drawings with me. And knew how to laugh too!

I had a great time at Bay Path College last month when I got to spend a week there as artist in residence. I taught six freshman classes in which we did abstract drawing, drawing upside-down and blind contour drawing. I wanted everyone to see that they can draw and that each of us has a unique hand. Also what’s interesting rather than good or bad—the old way of thinking. A lot of kids said they couldn’t draw or hadn’t drawn since they were kids. Not many schools make art a priority. Too bad because creative expression grows confidence and helps kids know themselves.

In the evenings, the students came into the drawing room to paint. Some said our drawing time had awakened their creative desires again. That made me happy. Others just wanted to try things out. I loved their great spirits. They came from different places and most of them hadn’t met each other before but sitting there painting they began to tell their stories in a sentence or two. One incredible young woman told me how she wants to do medical research to help her autistic brother. Another kid who’d never drawn or painted discovered she had a real gift. At one point, a young woman looked across the table at what another student was painting and said softly, “That’s so beautiful.” Art brings out the best.

Hi there! I’m off this morning to be artist in residence at Bay Path College in the beautiful countryside of western Massachusetts. The little car is jammed with art supplies—most for the young women I’ll be working with and some for myself. I’m going to begin a new project there. I’ve been working so hard for the last six months on my next book, Making Art a Practice, that I haven’t had much chance to make art. I’ll have a studio to work in so very excited. And the doors will be open so the students can come in and explore with me too.

A big thanks to Briana Sitler, the wizard of extra events at Bay Path. And to the wonderful writer, Suzanne Strempek Shea, who helped put this together. So looking forward to seeing them both and doing some great art explorations with the students at Bay Path. With luck, technology will co-operate and I can post more when I get there.

Have a wonderful week and may your creative explorations be bold and true to you!

Grafitti looks much the same everywhere with a few variations where things look more planned. When we were in Barcelona last spring, we noticed how many doors had been covered in grafitti, including the door to our cheap hotel. Just folks wanting to make their presence known—a bit of life and lots of feeling. And for me, some inspiration—I see how this casual visual expression brings life to a city even when, sometimes, it feels intrusive, like a nuisance. Nothing is black and white.