On Teaching and Other Stuff this Laidback Thursday Aternoon

My drawing and watercolor workshop for kids is coming to a close. I miss my students already. Kids are so easy to please. Kanina, I gave them Coke, and they were so happy about it. After that, kwentuhan na sila about wrestling, etc. Umm, guys, you still have to finish this, i would tell them... Oh well, baby sitter mode na naman ako.

I was telling them about Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan during the early days of Wrestlemania. haha they were looking at me like, you're that old already? On the other hand, kinukwento naman nila sa akin yung nangyari sa Wrestlemania 21 (which I missed watching.) The return of Stone Cold, pagkapanalo ni Undertaker etc. Hahaha complete with actions.

I loved the way they mixed their colors. So fearless, so pure. Their oranges would leap off the paper like fire. And their choices of colors! Surely no painter my age would do it this way. Pero galing grabe. I hope they can keep their artistic flair.

My other two classes are ending as well (Drawing for adults and Creativity.) Iba rin namang magturo ng matanda. Masaya rin hehe. If there's anything I would have hoped to teach them, it's that it's okay to be an artist. In a sense, the older students in my drawing class are like kids din, kasi where they stopped in their drawing stages is actually where we took off. Adults going back to drawing usually find their works juvenile. Which makes sense since it's about that period when kids stop drawing, overtaken by other concerns.

So I usually start off any new workshop by diagnostic drawing tests - drawing a person from memory, doing a self-portrait, and then drawing their hand. And then at the end of the course, I have them look at their initial drawings again. To say that they're surprised is an understatement. But it's all them. It's their hard work. I just facilitate. I keep telling them that drawing is a learnable skill, just like cooking, or driving, or swimming. I have one student there that's really serious about his craft, and I try to teach him everything I know. It's good rin to get feedback, since that way, i'll know where I need to concentrate, and what more I could teach them.

The hardest workshop to do is the Creativity Workshop. It's such a huge field, and there isn't any one authoritative text or source. It runs the gamut from creativity and spirit, blocks and fears, to skills and knowledge, life and learning. I still remember Tina asking me to do the workshop for her a year before. And I remember always begging off.. I can't do it, it's too hard, I still need more time. Finally, I said yes. And true enough, it was very difficult. I remember exhausting all my material in day one, as in pouring myself out, everything I knew.
And then the course just took on a life of its own. Our conversations became a creative spirit in itself, taking us in directions we never would have imagined. And along the way, learning about each other's processes, and our own. Although, I will admit, marami pa talaga akong hindi alam. But I think I'll let the workshop morph into whatever form it wants to take. And probably do more research and interviews.

I'll have to thank Havi for helping me while I was doing the workshop. Sabi nga nila, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I would not have been able to leap through the abyss without her correspondence. In a sense, the workshop took place because of her creativity coaching. Hmm... wise people - they're all over the place, and we don't even have to look far to ask for their help. And we don't even have to ask - sometimes they just show up, and our lives are all the richer for it.