Kandice Stewart
I am a 31-year old mother of two bright and busy toddlers. I am a wife, daughter, sister, friend, cousin. I view my occupation, teaching, as a mission. I believe that I serve a purpose and that purpose includes the formal and informal connections I make with anyone in my daily life.
I grew up using coloring books. In that sense, this course has given me a pause for cause. I am not ashamed of my childhood pre-made art packets because I do believe that they gave me my best coloring experiences, but I now understand how detrimental the materials were as a disservice to my creative explorations. Materials and the motivation dialogue between people is a staple from this course. Growing up, I did not have intentional interventions and dialogues regarding my artistic language as illustrated in Burton’s Developing Minds collection. Singular perspectives from a range of evidence has proven the benefit of giving children opportunities and experiences that add to their artistic repertoire such as exploration of subject matter and materials along with inquiry and observational experiences.
Some of my fondest elementary art experiences were making illustrated books about my family. I used to wake up earlier than my mother and with all of that “free time,” I used to make characters and develop storylines based on their appearances. I usually drew family members and created invented characters. I used to use these illustrated books like personal journals. I would reflect on my experiences and create characters based on how the people in my life made me feel.
In middle school, I was close to our substitute art teacher. He noticed that I had a desire to create, so he used to give me advice on my random doodles. I still remember wondering how to blend two colors and how to create a shadow on the fold of a dress. He would support me if I had intentions and questions in my next stage of artistic development. Burton’s constant underscore of children’s need to advance their specificity in representing their world (which propels them into the next artistic stage of development) resonates with my trajectory into the Arts.
I was able to develop a quality portfolio that I used for my entry into the High School of Fashion Industries where I studied Art, Design, and Illustration. Along with basic subjects, my schedule was well-balanced with level-specific art classes that included painting, drawing, graphic design, and photography. My high school experience set a wonderful foundation for observational skills and aesthetic development. One of the areas my education lacked was in the core areas of this course, which is imagination and personal explorative opportunities. The subject matters were often chosen ahead of time and sequenced intentionally. When I had time to create personal work, I often used memory and imagination naturally, but my academic experience never called upon those skills.
I attended a small, rural college in TN where I learned a breadth of art from mainly 3 professors. I learned ceramics, woodwork, and artistic process through Art Colloquial and Studio classes. I continued painting, drawing, printmaking, and graphic design. These courses expanded my knowledge and gave me confidence to take risks with materials that I would consider inexperienced.
As a mother, I have immediately implemented my education from Burton’s course. I constantly have exploratory opportunities with my children and students. When we have unique experiences, I hold space for us to re-present our memories. I pay closer attention to the “by chance” dialogue that students unconsciously share and I engage in more 1-on-1 conversations that are more question based and less biased. Burton’s statement rings clear daily now: “a dialogue presupposes a true interaction in which the teacher is open and responsive to the responses of pupils and, similarly, the pupils are open and engaged with the responses of each other.”
I have learned to be truly present and rely upon intuition and intellectual exchange that brings students into the fold of learning about life, relationships and connections.
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