I have spent thousands of hours developing methods to cut through these blocks. My greatest pleasure as a teacher is to see that look of confidence in the eye of someone who’s writing, drawing, or inventing a business which goes far beyond what they previously believed was possible.
All of us are capable of being surprised at how far we can go in building something new.
I think the first time I found my WHY was when I was 13 years old living in suburbia in a family where no one was an artist. I asked my mom for oil paints for my 13th birthday. She ordered them, and a few days later we went down to the Sears store in our town, and picked them up. I started painting immediately using oil on canvas boards. I still have that painting 56 years later. Of course it’s a pretty funky painting, but it led to hundreds of other paintings, sculptures, and pieces of furniture.
I discovered my next WHY, when after a few false starts at other universities, I began my architecture degree at a freeform, experimental architecture school in Santa Monica. I had been a loner, who found most of my connections with (mostly deceased) writers (Rimbaud, Gaston Bachelard, Freud, Dylan Thomas, Emily Dickinson…to name a few). But at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-arc) I found my tribe.!
SCI-arc took me from suburban bumpkin to hungry young urban artist.
I earned 3 advanced degrees (architecture, sculpture, psychotherapy) over a thirteen year period. I hadn’t give much thought to being a teacher, but a friend working at a private university needed someone with knowledge of design, art, and psychology, which led to what turned out to be one of the best things in my life. I spent 24 years teaching a class called Visual Thinking (which could be anything, right?)
Teaching, encouraging, building creative confidence in young people turned out to be my third WHY.
I had a fantastic time. My students sensed I was teaching in a different way, and that I really cared about their creative growth. And remarkably, I had a huge amount of academic freedom, which was a surprise. Lucky me.
My next step is teaching a global, more diverse mix of people in my own independent online classes.
