I am at work early, sitting on the comfy chair typing a blog before starting the day. I don’t tend to talk about school here but that is my bread and butter and my other side of the balanced life plan. Slowly stepping into my art business and getting a web presence is part of me developing this balanced life and allowing my art to go out into the world.
I am an artist first and always as this is my soul space where I create my world but I am also a teacher. Both are integral to my life balance and my place in this world. My art is a constant that feeds my soul. If I don’t create, I literally get physically sick. Art keeps me sane and helps me step out into the world and do all the things that life demands. I am a mum of two beautiful children. I say children but Lizzy had her 21st birthday celebration last weekend and Callum is16 and much taller than me. So to be a teacher, a mother and a wife, I need to honor the artist in me and then I can be all these other parts that make me uniquely me. All these parts are simply part of this complex being that is me.
I teach art and EAL at a disadvantaged school…what that really means is that approxiametly 70-80 percent are from overseas and many of these students are from areas that have been in crisis for one reason or another for many areas around the world. The EAL students in my Literacy support group are transition students who have spent 6 months to a year in the language center. Most in this group are refugees and some have come by boat. I feel honored to teach them. I also teach junior art. I have taught senior before but prefer junior. They are lively and excitable and mostly ready to learn. This semester one of my art students was from my Literacy support class and like many of them had never created with anything apart from a pencil.
I learn so much and am continually inspired by my students and know that as I teach them, I am learning (why do I have Debra Carr in my head with the line from “The King and I” singing “…and by your student’s you’ll be taught.’?) This is the joy of teaching and I love that the extravert in me is allowed to come out and play, just as the artist introvert part of me plays in my studio.
So my life is hectic and messy and often cluttered with all the bits that need doing (or I desperately want to do) but the way I stay sane (I know some will debate this point) is to keep creating. By doing thiI can then emerge into the world and be the extravert self who can do so much and make a difference in my own small way to these amazing children who I am lucky enough to have in my life.
Well it is evening now. The school bell rang and I went to work but now it is time to post my days ramble. Just putting perspective on balancing art and life and how it all fits together in my world. It is a bit crazy and messy and everything does not have a neat order but everything is about inspiration, sharing and making a difference…that is the way I achieve balance in my life with the messy reshaping and reforming of my world. There are no straight lines in this journey to balance but a to and through between the multiple aspects of my life that are simply my way of being present in this crazy world.