I was on a walk with a friend the other day and mentioned that while I love teaching, I wish I was focused more on my own creative practices. She looked me dead in the eye and said : teaching IS your creative practice.

One of the easiest ways to sabotage our offerings is to say they aren’t “real art” if they aren’t physical objects hung in an art gallery ready to be sold and bought. A commerce specific form of art making. Black and white thinking that I don’t subscribe to, don’t teach to my students, and don’t believe is true.

And yet, we so quickly think if we are teaching about the thing, talking about the thing, we may not be worthy of calling ourselves “the thing”. A writer, a dancer, a quilter, a painter, an herbalist, a therapist, a lawyer, a sculptor, a ceramicist.

I want you to know that crafting a creative and business ecosystem that includes income streams outside of the “art making” itself, is an opportunity to fund this side of your creativity, as well as bring you deeper into your process. Teaching doesn't have to bring you farther from your studio practice, but can bring you closer to it.

In 2020 I felt the urge to be more committed to my quilt practice, and instead of waiting to make a bunch of quilts before I started teaching, I first decided to teach. Teaching as a non expert quilter has brought me into a deepened state of quilt research and history, as well as my own practice as a quilter. I purposefully keep the selling of quilts outside of what I do. I could if I wanted to shift that way, but as an overall part of my job description I do not make quilts for sale.

Seeing my teaching as a part of my art practice not only keeps me close to the art itself, but keeps me in the ever changing formation of who I am becoming. It shows me that what I want to learn is often what I should be teaching, if I am so willing to make a bit of a mess at it. Who I teach is a lesson in what is to be reflected back to me. And why I teach is simple : to bring the hope practice of creation to as many artists as possible so they may create their own work and put it into the world. Together we unlock the how and the why behind their own big ideas.

A few years ago I taught The World Needs Your Online Class - which has now shifted a bit and is called Teaching as a Practice : A three week class for visioning your offering , building your dream syllabus, and launching and teaching your own online class

Changing the name was part of my own ideas shape shifting. Maybe the world doesn’t actually need your online class, maybe the world would be just fine without it. I wanted to turn the focus onto YOU - the teacher. And the importance of teaching as part of your own expanded abundance of income, output, and reach. YOU might need your online class, to get closer to what is calling to you, and an outlet for sharing your gifts with the world. Don’t believe you have gifts to share? Come to class and find out that - you do. It is the simple and pure truth.

May your practice be one of great expansion and sharing of the resources you know

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TEACHING AS A PRACTICE

A three week class for visioning your offering , building your dream syllabus, and launching and teaching your own online class

WHEN : Thursdays live on zoom: July 13, 20 and 27 at 1pm PT / 4pm ET Classes are 2 hours long

Plus two question lab sessions: Tue 7/18 1pm PT / 4pm ET for 90 min Tue 7/25 1pm PT / 4pm ET for 90 min

All sessions are recorded and sent out within 48hrs and you’ll have lifetime access

There are so many things I am excited about in this class. Understanding all the tech and delivery methods, preparing to teach live, and marketing in a way that feels just as fun as the teaching itself. What I love most is designing our own beautiful syllabus for our classrooms and all the data and research gathering we do as a group. I can’t wait to teach class live and form a cohort of big ideas for all the beautiful workshops and courses - whether they are 20 min mini classes or 12 week long form workshops.

PRICE : Class is **$425 scholarships available

WHO IT’S FOR : Artist, writers, weirdos, small business owners who want to launch an online course, dream up a beautiful syllabus, understand marketing strategy, and teach a class to invested students

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