I was recently asked about our story. We have been around so long I forget some don’t know the path it took to get us to the place we are now. Our path was not straight and it was exactly what we needed for me to offer the diverse programs we have. Truth be told the “us”, “we”, “our”, should really read “me”, “I”, and “my” but I have always felt it took the support of my family to really have this studio what it is today. Over the next few weeks I will tell my story of who, what, where, when, how, and why. I do hope it inspires you if you are feeling there is something else out there to apply your passions towards, it certainly doesn’t have to be about art as you will begin to see my path did not start that way and it most definitely does not need to be as someone before you may have started. Welcome to my first entry into how Studio 4 Art came to be.

My story revolves around my kids; they were my inspiration and continue to be. Ideas were ignited from what I saw them thrive in, things I saw they could use more of, or new ideas I thought would allow them and others to experience for the betterment and understanding of themselves. But every part of my business story is about my kids.

Twenty years ago my kids were in the most sought-after elementary school in our county. There was high parent participation, lots of funding, and parents who understood how important art education was. And even with all of this, there were large holes I began to see. My background at the time was not in art education but I did have a creative career designing clothes for kids that I had built from the ground up so I did understand the creative process and how important it was outside of the ever-popular reading, writing, and arithmetic.

To begin, students had infrequent times to have art class, and all set to state standards with a curriculum that had specific outlines and outcomes. This only allowed children to express themselves through rigid guidelines. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with only being able to use a set of limited words? How do you think it would go, would you feel heard and understood? No child was finding their voice through art and many students would “hate” art because mentally their brains were not developed to welcome predetermined works of art. Unfortunately, our education system from college and universities build us up to have a grading system built on ways to say a child succeeded by the work produced instead of finding the genius in their ingenuity. This is where my story really begins.

When this all started I did not consider myself an artist but I did see through volunteering at my children’s school I was good at coaching, I didn’t have to know everything there was to know about writing and grammar to have what was needed to ask questions of them to encourage further writing or create meanings within their writing. I took this model and started to teach after-school art classes thinking I could help narrow the gap I saw. After a very short time I was hooked and my classes were popular. My students enjoyed the open-ended art invitations and the parents saw their kids excited and eager to share their process. This opened the first door for me to dive deeper and gain a better understanding of art education and child development as I decided to go back to school. I wanted to have a strong foundation as this new career started to take hold, I didn’t just want to walk the walk, I wanted the education to talk the talk. I started down the road of a traditional art education teaching degree as I thought it would be the best match to continue what I had already begun. However, I quickly felt it was not the match I was looking for. I really wanted to develop a way to better connect with children to give them a voice they would not be offered in other school subjects. This became my mission.

After being accepted into an acclaimed teaching program and seeing it was not going to give me the tools I knew I needed, I changed my learning path. I started by taking every class I thought would enhance my mission, empowering children by giving them a voice through art education. I started my own program to gain knowledge about children and art. I took every child psychology class I could (and I believe EVERY parent and teacher should be required to attend as I think we would be looking at a very different school culture and parent/child connection if we did), I started taking art studio classes in every subject, and still took classes required of an educator in art. I loved gaining all of this knowledge and began weaving them into my after school classes. The real light began to shine for me however in my art studio classes. Through these courses, and amazing instructors, I began to see how letting yourself experience the process of art was what I was feeling was the biggest “miss” with our educational system. I started to understand process and technique could also live harmoniously together, but again this was not what was being taught in a traditional university educational system for art teachers and I had many conversations with professors about art for arts sake and traditional art standards and inevitably these two thought processes were teamed up against each other, but in the art studio courses they were required to work together and could not exclusively stand alone.

After years of juggling classes, raising two kids (now divorced), and continuing my business as an after-school art enrichment teacher, I graduated with an art studio degree with a focus in child psychology.

Chapter 2 will be added soon!