Literacies Embedded in my Work
Posted by Catherine Rousseau on Wednesday, March 3, 2010
"My Work". It is a term which is complicated to define, let alone to analyze. My work can be separated into two categories: first, my personal artwork; second, my work as an educator and community artist. Of course, there is often overlap between the two where questions which arise in one work are answered in the other, but they are usually separately defined.
My personal artwork (refer to my artist statement) explores my environment on a personal level. My artwork explores my "world" through my eyes, my personal accounts and explorations. My visual works combine my experiences with music, literature and poetry to create a visual representation of feeling as I begin to define myself as an organism in my environment. I create artwork to ask questions. These questions often concern the idea of "place", "home", and "identity". I work to explore my childhood through my present, adult eyes. As mentioned before, there is often a fusion of multiple arts in my visual work. The fusion of multiple forms of art allow me to explore the multiple sensations I experience in my environment. The combination of artistic experiences in one visual work create a unified and comprehensive experience for both myself and the viewer. Essentially, my work talks about me. This is very unlike the work I do as an artistic educator.
Becoming an educator has been an interesting experience for me. I have spent the last few years of my life in an egocentric sphere attempting (through artwork) to find myself. Now, I find myself in a completely different world. I have taken myself out of the comfort of my "creative cave" of a studio, and pushed myself to taken what I have learned about myself, and act as the individual my art has created. I am now a member of a much wider artistic community; a community who asks itself the same self-identifying questions as I have asked myself. It is now my role to introduce art to my community as a means of finding themselves, and identifying their role in their community. I believe that it is in the creative arts that this ambition can be realized, and accomplished (as it has been for me).
I love people. I always have. I love what people are capable of and what we can do when we come together. Creativity is so important in an education of any kind, and through my work as a community educator, I hope to help others on their own creative journey through life. The arts have rooted themselves in my life so deeply that it seems I am past the point of no return. Everywhere I look, I not only see possibilities, but also see the beautiful creative spirit which is already present. I want to be able to inspire others to be able to see this as well. I understand that not everyone has the abilities, or desire to become an artist, but I believe that an appreciation for the arts is just as, if not more valuable. A creative mind creates more opportunity for itself, it's environment and community. I hope that my work as an artistic educator helps others explore their own minds, their own potential and their own dreams.
Now, to describe my works as one whole work, I would say that one can not exist without the other. I ask questions in my artwork that are often answered in my community work, and vise-versa. The think that they can be both uniquely defined as my collective creative works. Although I define them as "my" works, it must be noted that as my works define me, it is my environment and community that effect my art. So in a sense, there seems to be a circle of influence that surrounds me: my environment to my art, my art to me, me to my community, and my community to my environment.
To find the embedded literacies in my work would be to redefine my work all over again. My work revolves around literacies: the way we see the world, see each other, see our histories and ourselves. My work is a way of understanding ourselves as unique organisms in a common collective. I like to think of my work as a pool of multiple literacies, some discovered, and some yet to be revieled. So in a sence, my work is literacy: a way of understanding.
My personal artwork (refer to my artist statement) explores my environment on a personal level. My artwork explores my "world" through my eyes, my personal accounts and explorations. My visual works combine my experiences with music, literature and poetry to create a visual representation of feeling as I begin to define myself as an organism in my environment. I create artwork to ask questions. These questions often concern the idea of "place", "home", and "identity". I work to explore my childhood through my present, adult eyes. As mentioned before, there is often a fusion of multiple arts in my visual work. The fusion of multiple forms of art allow me to explore the multiple sensations I experience in my environment. The combination of artistic experiences in one visual work create a unified and comprehensive experience for both myself and the viewer. Essentially, my work talks about me. This is very unlike the work I do as an artistic educator.
Becoming an educator has been an interesting experience for me. I have spent the last few years of my life in an egocentric sphere attempting (through artwork) to find myself. Now, I find myself in a completely different world. I have taken myself out of the comfort of my "creative cave" of a studio, and pushed myself to taken what I have learned about myself, and act as the individual my art has created. I am now a member of a much wider artistic community; a community who asks itself the same self-identifying questions as I have asked myself. It is now my role to introduce art to my community as a means of finding themselves, and identifying their role in their community. I believe that it is in the creative arts that this ambition can be realized, and accomplished (as it has been for me).
I love people. I always have. I love what people are capable of and what we can do when we come together. Creativity is so important in an education of any kind, and through my work as a community educator, I hope to help others on their own creative journey through life. The arts have rooted themselves in my life so deeply that it seems I am past the point of no return. Everywhere I look, I not only see possibilities, but also see the beautiful creative spirit which is already present. I want to be able to inspire others to be able to see this as well. I understand that not everyone has the abilities, or desire to become an artist, but I believe that an appreciation for the arts is just as, if not more valuable. A creative mind creates more opportunity for itself, it's environment and community. I hope that my work as an artistic educator helps others explore their own minds, their own potential and their own dreams.
Now, to describe my works as one whole work, I would say that one can not exist without the other. I ask questions in my artwork that are often answered in my community work, and vise-versa. The think that they can be both uniquely defined as my collective creative works. Although I define them as "my" works, it must be noted that as my works define me, it is my environment and community that effect my art. So in a sense, there seems to be a circle of influence that surrounds me: my environment to my art, my art to me, me to my community, and my community to my environment.
To find the embedded literacies in my work would be to redefine my work all over again. My work revolves around literacies: the way we see the world, see each other, see our histories and ourselves. My work is a way of understanding ourselves as unique organisms in a common collective. I like to think of my work as a pool of multiple literacies, some discovered, and some yet to be revieled. So in a sence, my work is literacy: a way of understanding.