I thought I had to have everything figured out before I could teach. I thought I had to be an expert, so I waited a long time before I started teaching. I wish I hadn’t.
There are some great reasons to teach especially if you are creative. Here are the top 3 reasons why you might give teaching a try.
It helps you.
That’s right. After every workshop I teach I can always look forward to coming back to the studio and being super clear about what I am doing. Spending time articulating to students over and over again how to improve their art, rubs off on you. When you go back to your own art, things just seem easier. By saying what needs to be done so much, when it comes time for you to finally make your art it just flows.
It helps them.
It always is a great day when you hear from someone who, months after taking a class of yours, has become fired up again about their art. Sometimes I have even had people switch their careers once they find out that art making is an option for them. I have seriously converted 3 lawyers and I am now working on my fourth! Inspiring people is a totally worthwhile thing to try to do. It simply feels great. For you and them.
You are ready.
If you were like me who thought I had to be so advanced, so totally together to teach, then listen carefully. You don’t. All you need to be is just a little further down the road than the people you are helping. There are tons of artists that are further along than you but I bet there are way more behind you. And those are the people who would love to be shown some easier ways around things that you have already overcome. Sometimes we forget just how far we have come. You are eligible.
I find that teaching is the perfect complement to working in a studio alone. Teaching a group is the opposite of working quietly alone and when you put those two together in your life it just works beautifully…
So give it a try. Start small. Take one thing, one part of art making you really love and offer a class. Think of one thing you now know that made all the difference in the world to you…this could be the thing you could teach others.
You might be surprised how gratifying it is to teach. It certainly has been for me.
What is that one thing that you recently learned that has really helped you? Could you teach this?
