Home is where the studio is.
The online Scribble studio is the same. Artists sprawled on the floor or hunched over desks working closely with their pieces of art; materials and tools close by; quiet moments of concentration or hypnotic tactile engagement; questions about how to make a color; discussions amongst artists about what we've done and what we'll be doing; an excited discovery about making a shape for the very first time; wholehearted focus on the work in front of us.
The online Scribble studio is also different. It now includes the old family dog, a baby sister being chased around the couch, a dad finishing up lunch burritos, a pile of laundry, a mom on a work call, a guest room, a fabulous view of the forest, a trampoline, snacks in a bowl and a treasured stuffed bunny. And just to be fully transparent, the new "teaching" studios have a toddler running around on the floor above, intermittently playing the drums, teenagers sleeping, roommates working remotely and husbands watching Netflix.
This is one of the benefits of teaching online. We, as teachers, have always had a personal interest in your children. If you're good, it's part of the job. The more we know about their lives (Are you an only child? Do you like Chinese food? Do you have a pet? Do you like being alone?), the more we can understand how to motivate, praise, challenge and connect with them. Teaching your children from our homes to yours is a very special opportunity to see your child in their safest space. The most important ingredient in teaching and specifically teaching art-making is emotional safety. What better way to develop that, then from where your child is the most secure: HOME.
Throughout class, most Scribble teachers waver between muting and unmuting students depending on the volume of the background noise, but personally, in moments of "creative flow", I find myself, much more often, unmuting; metaphorically tiptoeing back into the remote studio with sound and enjoying the humming of your homes.
Being in the Scribble studio with your children facilitating their art-making is the ultimate privilege; it's magic. Now that this magic is happening in your homes, I wanted to thank you, our first class of online Scribblers, for opening your homes to us.