The Introvert

​"Daily life seems to exhaust my child." " My child is a slow warm up and quiet, but loves art and really wants to learn more."  "My child can be very nervous when starting something new."  "My child loves spending hours drawing and lost in their imagination."  "My child is just like me."

I have a line on my registration form that asks what I should know about your child that will help them enjoy class.  These are some of the comments, many repeated, many similar and when I share them with the class, that I'm am this way too, sometimes I see the whole class take a breath.  I always let me studio mates know the current class schedule so they know when students will be coming or going, but often the classes are so quiet and engaged that they don't even notice us.
For an introvert that has had to negotiate kids at school, recess and a bus ride home, doing much else is overwhelming.  As an adult negotiating work, children and marriages can pull the same energy from us. When pushed to step out for an evening activity, anxiety sets in because we are just done.  The battery is empty.  Then their is the guilt which is a whole other topic.
The studio is a respite from required social extroversion that is expected in our culture.  It is why we are called The Abbey.  It is a place to plug in and get refreshed, renewed, re energized.  A place to communicate with line, color, shape and composition and for many of us introverts this is just  a much easier way to communicate.  A way that doesn't take so much from us, a place where we can give and still have reserve.

This is why I do art and why I teach and why I've created the Abbey.  A place to be still.  To find language beyond words that communicates how much I think and feel and see.
If this sounds like a place in which you or your child would find energy and joy, then join us this fall and see how some art and stillness can change your sense of being.