My positionality as a visual culture art educator has deeply affected my beliefs as a practicing artist. Previously, when viewing myself as only a studio artist, I had ideations of art as realism, expressionism, and perfectionism. I saw my work as speaking to me as artist first, and to the audience second. The process was a personal therapy, but the product still needed to look good enough to be categorized in the Western notion of “art”.
Now, as an art educator/artist, I view art and its production very differently. Currently I view art and art making as a means of conveying a message; a message that needs to be critically analyzed and/or deconstructed in order to find its [and therefore- my] underlying assumptions about society and the world. I am now more skeptical, critical, and deliberate in the works I produce; however, I am also less concerned with the aesthetics of the finished product. I see my art as windows into the ontological being that I am and would also like to become. If stereotypes emerge within my artworks, I want to problem solve ways of overcoming and alleviating them- both in the works and in my personal life. And as an educator, I want to assist my students in having similar experiences with their individual and collective art pieces while at the same time guiding them to become more socially conscious citizens. In short, I now see art as more of a dialogic practice than as a studio practice [warranting discussion and analysis of ideas, not critique of technique].