Last month I spent a whole lot of time preparing for workshops and teaching. I’ve been reflecting on whether or not that was a good thing. I’ve never had the desire to be a teacher, but offering classes felt like one of the many things I should do as part of my professional art practise. I realized early on that I could share some of my hard earned knowledge in exchange for money. That’s really my whole driver for offering workshops.

I’m on the fence about whether or not I enjoy teaching workshops, and if the amount of work I need to put into them actually pays off. Due to poor planning of my schedule last month I ended up teaching three different classes over three consecutive weekends. That turned out to be a terrible idea. Because two of the classes were new offerings, I had to dedicate precious studio time to workshop preparations instead of making art. When the thing I’m doing to support my art gets in the way of it instead, I have to question why I am doing it.

I keep struggling with this whole workshop thing, and have been for years. I think because it’s something I feel I should do, rather than 100% something I want to do, or even love to do. I’m reflecting on this now as I consider the next few months and when or if I’ll schedule more workshops.