Maya Sabatini - Visual Artist and Educator

Art is transformative. 

 

As a consumer of art, you can feel that beauty, or pain, or joy, or anger, or any other emotion the artist felt when making a piece. 

 

That in itself is beautiful. 

 

Without words, without explanation, a spectator can connect with the artist on a deepened level. They can empathize with the smallest amount of verbal communication possible. This connection is invaluable. It transcends race, age, gender, and class; it transcends the divisions we impose upon ourselves. 

 

This is the power of art. This is the power I hope to give to my students. I want them to feel capable of pushing themselves to be the best people and artists they can be. I want to ask them to connect with people they feel they have nothing in common with. I want to ask them to pour their heart and souls into their work so that someone else might get to feel that passion through the page.

 

The art classroom is the place to do all of this. It is a place to explore, to connect, to cry, to laugh. It is a place to feel safe and challenged. It is a place that holds an energy that leaks out into the world with curiosity and understanding. To keep our world together we need art. To keep our world together, we need places like the art classroom.