Acknowledgments
Land Acknowledgment
Art Works! Studio is located in Walled Lake, Michigan, on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe peoples, including the Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa, and Potawatomi.
I offer this acknowledgment with respect for the relationship between land, water, and community, and as part of my commitment to place-based learning, ongoing awareness, and continued listening to the histories—both visible and unseen—that shape where we gather.
Who Inspires This Work
This way of working. at Art Works! Studio is shaped both by the people in my studio—those who show up, try, hesitate, risk, and discover—and by a broader lineage of artists, educators, and thinkers.
In expressive arts:
- Shaun McNiff describes the creative process as a dialogue—an exchange between maker and material, image and response. This kind of relationship cannot be forced. It requires a willingness to follow, to respond, to remain open.
- Paolo Knill – emphasizes creating spaces of “low skill, high sensitivity,” where expression is not limited by technical mastery, but supported through attention and exploration.
- Stephen K. Levine – speaks of poiesis—making as a way of being in the world. In this view, creativity is not about producing outcomes, but about entering into relationship with what is not yet known.
- Natalie Rogers—in the humanist tradition —reminds us that creativity is innate—and that when conditions feel safe and supportive, expression unfolds naturally.
In education and human development:
- Lev Vygotsky – understood play as a space where we move beyond what we can already do independently. In play, we stretch into new ways of thinking and making—often with just enough support to keep going.
- Donald Winnicott – described play as the place where the self forms—where inner experience and the external world meet.
- Jean Piaget – understood learning as something we construct through experience—by working with materials, making adjustments, and gradually building understanding.
In creativity, play, and well-being:
- Stuart Brown – understood play is linked not only to creativity, but to resilience, adaptability, and well-being across the lifespan.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – describes the kind of deep, absorbed attention that often arises in play—what he calls flow—as central to meaningful experience.
And always—
the ongoing, lived experience of making.
The Poets Who Guide Us
At Art Works! Studio, our approach to creativity is shaped by poets who write from presence, listening, and deep regard for the inner life. Voices such as Mary Oliver, John O’Donohue, David Whyte, Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Wendell Berry, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Pablo Neruda remind us that art is not about performance or perfection, but about attention, belonging, and honest engagement with the world. Their words invite us to slow down, to notice, and to trust creative practice as a way to make meaning, tend the soul, and live more fully.