Salt, Sugar, and Sea Critters

As a kid growing up, birthdays were a double affair: one with friends and one with family. And as a summer birthday girl, my friend parties were often elaborate excuses to pull out the garden hose or kiddie pool on a hot and humid August day. The most memorable was a mermaid-themed party complete with starfish shaped cake, homemade rainbow fish piñata, and treat bag-filled treasure chest at the end of a scavenger hunt.

Today, my 30th birthday, I find myself thinking back to those languid summer days. Hard as I try though, it’s impossible to fully recapture that childhood sense of carefree fun… but I’ve come close.

Since May I’ve hosted four adult botanical watercolor workshops and four kids art camps covering story ideation and creation to under-the-sea critters crafted with crayons and salt!

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While I enjoy teaching all ages, there is something extra special about making art with kids, especially when using my favorite medium: watercolor. Adults often become easily frustrated with the way the paint moves across the page as it dries, running into other colors and expanding beyond the bounds of their initial sketch. Kids on the other hand go at it with gusto, reveling in the unpredictable nature of water and pigment, creating tie-dyed designs and rainbows that run in rivulets down the page.

As a professional artist it’s a refreshing reminder for me too that I need not always be so controlling over my own work. The moment I allow myself to be a little less inhibited in my creative process is when the magic happens, it’s when I come close to that feeling of limitless possibility of a long summer day.

And if I needed a reminder as to why I’ve come to love teaching, I found it in my inbox earlier this summer after the first two sessions of my Kids Under the Sea Watercolor Workshops.

“Claire,

Thank you so much for the pictures. _____ had a wonderful time.  She could not stop talking about it and you last night at dinner with the whole family.  We hope we are able to join you again for some more classes.  You were amazing! You talent is clearly presented in your work.  More importantly, how graciously you taught and treated _____ will stay with her forever.  We all think her work was great and so much fun.  

Thank you again for sharing yourself with us and building a young girl’s self image!
”

— Grandma of one young artist

Teaching has become something of a symbiotic relationship for me, especially when I can instruct from my own studio. Often I learn a lesson or two from the kids I invite in as much as they learn from me. And to see in writing how much that work is appreciated, well, that’s just the icing on the cake!

Full Circle

My head was spinning. Not from the physical act of moving in a circle; I remained relatively stationary. I was teaching a mandala yoga flow, a sequence in which students move fluidly from one pose to the next, ultimately creating a circle, or mandala on their yoga mats.

It’s a complicated sequence without pause they required me to not just be physically present for my students, but mentally as well. It’s not a flow I would have had the courage or experience to teach two years ago, or perhaps even one year ago. Then again, I never thought I would be teaching a yoga class, let alone prepping for my third year as a college teacher of art and design this fall.

Like my students as they revolved from inhale to exhale on their yoga mats, my journey as a teacher has come full circle as well. This summer I joined the Power Teacher Training Team at my yoga studio to coach students through their 200 hour yoga certification. It’s the same program I took on three years ago, just this time I’m on the other side of the mat.

“I’m learning both how to be a better student and a better teacher. ”

It’s an experience that feels both familiar and entirely new. Familiar in the sense of nostalgia I experience every training when I recognize the bonds between the students formed from countless practice hours. I too created strong friendships during my training in 2019. But it’s also entirely new to me learning how to constructively give feedback to my students, to acknowledge their strengths and push past their mistakes.

In yoga the term ‘namaste’ means many things. But one interpretation is ‘the essence in me, sees and honors the essence in you.’ Or more aptly, ‘The student and teacher in me, sees and honors the student and teacher in you.’ Because we all are a little of both; student and teacher. I may have my 200 hour certification under my belt, but I’m still learning. I’m learning both how to be a better student and a better teacher.

After all, I credit my experience on my yoga mat for giving me the confidence to teach not just in my yoga studio, but an art studio too. It made me realize that I’m not just content to practice on my own mat or at my own drawing board, but that I want to share my knowledge and skills with others. I want to give back to the communities that have given me so much.