Creativity is in Everyone

My sister and I grew up like night and day. My sister would stay in her room reading Beverly Cleary books or writing these wonderful stories on her non-electric typewriter. You would hear the steady tapping of each key as her stories grew. Me, I spent countless hours riding my bike, counting with pride each new scar I would gain from another mishap, and playing the in the dirt trenches of the addition going on our home.

As we grew up, my sister gained her Bachelors and Masters in History. She took an internship with House researching Bills and later began working in the Senate. Currently she is a Fiscal Officer for the Senate. I can't imagine what it is like to work in the Capital each day. As I grew up, I found a love of the arts, gained my Bachelors and Masters in Art Education, and obviously became an art teacher.

I had always thought of myself as the artsy freespirit and my sister as the total opposite. It wasn't until my sister found scrapbooking, that I found the other side of my sister. Her talents in teaching scrap classes in her spare time and a growing interest in design made me realize that there is a little artist in all of us.

If you are not familar with scrapbooking or think of it as simply cutting and pasting paper and pictures together, you couldn't be farther from the truth. Scrapbooking has become an artform. Altering of found objects, transforming pictures and words into works of art is what it is all about.

My sister's love grew into a love of design. Last year she began a design company called Dude Designs where she designs lines of scrapbook paper. Her paper is now an internationl success. Her understanding of Photoshop and strong sense of design and color have played an important part in her new second career.

My sister has taught me to truly appreciate every student who takes my classes. Some kids think that they have to be known as being artsy to be in my classes, but what I have found is that students who are "mathy", "sportsy", "sciency" (if those were even words) have an artsy side waiting to be brought out and when it does...watch out!