studio, The

A friend of mine, Jeff Braun, recently asked a talented artist how he became inspired to create such wonderful watercolors.

"Each morning," the artist replied, "I go to my studio, because I never know when inspiration will strike and I want to be ready."

His answer was rather surprising, because he provided not a clue about how inspiration might be triggered; he just sits down and waits...in his studio.

Well, okay..I guess. After all, it works for him. And if he's in his studio when inspiration strikes he can, as he says, get right to work. And, come to think of it, that's not a bad idea.

A studio, however, doesn't seem like the spot where inspiration might strike. I've always believed inspiration, at least where art is the focus, was triggered by beauty... by sitting on a park bench, for instance, looking at a sunset. Or walking through the woods, or climbing a mountain or riding a ferry.

But how about you and me? Most of us are not artists, so how do we, and others like us, receive our inspiration? Do we have our own studios? If so, where?

For most people, the location of their studio is obvious. The gourmet cook has his or her studio in the kitchen, where the inspiration comes in knowing that a "pinch of this" and "a cup of that" will make mouths water from morning `til night.

For a baseball player his studio might be the outfield where, all alone and using his knowledge about the next batter, he's inspired to station himself toward the left field foul line, in perfect position to make the out when the batter "flies to left."

For a taxi driver, his studio is undoubtedly the front seat of his car, where inspiration helps him avoid a traffic jam so he gets his passenger to the plane on time. By the way, there is a beauty, I think, in not getting lost.

For Donald Baird, the late and brilliant Art Director for Teaching KA who, to our great sorrow, passed away last July, his was a movable studio. Where he was, his studio was also. It could be in his home, in the bedroom of the house where our magazine was born almost 31 years ago, or in the quiet corner of our current offices, where his musings and experimentations, his high standards, his taste and his decency kept us from making mistakes he knew we'd regret. We were Don's acolytes, sitting at the feet of a master.

When I think about you, I know that as a classroom teacher you find inspiration in your own "studio" - which is, not surprisingly, your classroom. For over 30 years I've seen you in action, watching as your inspiration turned a difficult moment into a laughable moment or a teachable moment. And, best of all, I've watched countless times as you brought an "I got it!" grin to a worshipful child basking in your praise.

Those are the inspiring moments, the memories of which, I suspect, send you off to sleep each night with a smile on your face - and bring you back to the classroom tomorrow, and for day after day and year after year.

These daily moments of inspiration come, maybe not instantly, maybe not as brilliantly from one day to the next, but they come.

Over the years I've been lucky enough to visit hundreds of classrooms like yours all over the country, watching as your inspiration worked miracles. Your classrooms are "the studios where creative teachers turn out masterpieces, one by one, day after day."

It can't get any better than that.

Copyright Early Years, Inc. Jan 2002
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