We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Hammack. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.
Emily, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I keep my creativity alive by engaging in play and imaginative activities with my elementary students, and in my personal art practice. I enjoy creating space for pretending because the world doesn’t make that space for adults and tries to make children un-learn it. School focuses a lot on facts, rules, and comprehension. I like to engage them in the questions with no answers, making up silly rules, and thinking about those things in our worlds that are beyond comprehension. A game of what if’s can become tiring for a teacher trying to teach facts, however teaching art gives me the freedom to encourage what if’s as a philosophy of inquiry and exploration. What really keeps my creativity alive is cultivating their creativity and being amazed all the time by what they share from their inner worlds.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a mixed media conceptual artist and educator. My artwork explores themes of environmentalism, activism, and community. I grew up playing with insects in my yard and spent countless hours in trees catching the cicadas and collecting their exoskeletons. I have always had a particular interest in insects and those creatures in our world who are often overlooked or misunderstood. Through my art and educational practices, I express my critical, but playful perspective while engaging in imaginary explorations and interdisciplinary interests. I am really inspired by nature and science, as well as the ways science fails to explain the wonders of the world. I like to examine that space between the observable and unexplained phenomena of human existence.
Following my dream of becoming an artist and educator, I graduated from Metropolitan State University in Denver and began teaching elementary art in Denver Public Schools.
I have been on a journey for the past year with an amazing group of artist/educators called the Chameleon Art Collective. We get together to encourage each other to grow as artists, despite our demanding work lives. I am incredibly excited for the year to come, because we will be putting together many more art shows as we grow and change as a community. My focus right now is finding a balance between growing my own artistic career and practice, and providing the best arts education possible.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think that building a good community of people you can rely on is the best way to continue on any journey that is worth pursuing. Without my family and friends, I would not have made it through school, my first year of teaching, or continued creating my own artwork. Building community is not an easy feat in our society today, however it is an area of focus for me because we need it more than ever. Focusing on rest enough to show up and be the best educator, friend, and artist I can be has also been a skill I have been building since the pandemic forced us all to take a pause. It is not easy to force myself to rest, but I have realized how necessary it is for me to show up as my best self. These things combined with self awareness have helped me be successful. Self-awareness helps me know when I need to rest and when I may need to ask for help.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think it is best to try to be well rounded in life. As someone who is often torn between multiple interests, artistic media, and passions, I find it hard to narrow my efforts to one particular strength. I would rather focus on learning more, and recognizing where my short comings may be. The problems of our modern world are very complex and it will take complex people to solve these problems.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chameleon-collective.com/home-2/the-artists/emily-hammack-2/
- Instagram: @hammack.emily
