Our everyday life is decorated with art. Art shapes and determines our very being. This can be seen in the style of clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and the objects we collect to create our environment. Every child from Kindergarten to the twelfth grade must have the opportunity to express his or herself through the visual arts. Not as an elective but deemed just as important as “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic”. After all, from a historical view, we all know that humans were decorating the walls of their caves with scenes of “the hunt” long before mathematicians and scientists were solving problems on blackboards.

A brief list of what art means to me and what I intend to pass on to my students.

EXPERIMENT Art is a constant trial and error. You don't know what you can do if you don't know what the materials you are using will do. Play and have fun.

MISTAKES In art it is OK to make mistakes. Some of the best ideas came accidentally. Art is sometimes unintentional just as much as it is intentional.

OBSERVATION Art requires one to have good observation skills and to look at things differently than others. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

BASICS Always stick to the basics. All you need to remember are the basic principles and elements of design.

PROCESS Art is a process that most of the time requires patience. This is not always easy especially for a new generation that demands instant gratification.

QUESTION In art one must constantly ask the right questions to find the right answers to achieve the proper end result. Problem solving.

PASSION Art stirs the soul. When others know how genuinely passionate you are about art, it can be contagious. In this regard it is my intent to start an epidemic.

Tom Pearcy, 2005