I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for an incredible semester.

It’s not often that you get the chance to learn from and practice with an experienced, esteemed artist (especially when you’re not a real art student, like me,) and I honestly feel like this semester was one of unbelievable growth, much of which I have you to thank for.

I know we got off to a rocky start, but I seriously appreciate you having faith in me to finish out the class. At the beginning of this semester, I was dealing with a lot of general and mental health issues. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my bed most days, let alone try to think about what the hell I was going to paint for any of the assignments I was presented with.

I know I wasn’t always totally present when I was there, and many times I was simply stuck in my own head and unable to pay attention or make any progress on my work, but learning from you helped me to start to escape my internal battles and creative and mental paralysis.

There is such a thing as being too cautious or guarded with your work, and you made me realize just how big the wall was between my art and myself. There was so much happening in my life and my mind that I didn’t want to deal with or acknowledge. I lived in fear of what was happening inside and around me. You showed me how to open myself up to allowing art to be a true expression of my thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Not only was I afraid of coping with general life things, I was also so afraid of messing up that I spent more time staring at my work than actually making progress on it. Somehow, no matter what mood I was in or how much (or little) I managed to accomplish during class, you had me think about something other than what was weighing so heavily on my mind.

For the longest time, I was too concerned about making a wrong move so I just didn’t make moves at all. This was affecting my art, my writing, my schoolwork, my relationships and was ultimately restricting my life. I don’t know what it is about growing up that inhibits our ability to express ourselves.

I’m not sure when or how, but eventually I finally started to get it. I got some semblance of a clear head and was able to all of a sudden create the things that had been cached in my head, hidden behind everything else that was distracting me. You cracked the surface of that fear, and I feel like I can proceed with less caution now.

Our class had open conversation about introspection, and our extensive discussion about philosophy and art in relation with life truly gave me a new perspective. You developed a relationship with your students. We all felt like we could come to you if we needed to with questions about our assignments, our work in general or anything else we needed.

You weren’t ashamed of anything you’ve experienced, as shown in your work and the way you teach, and it is so helpful to those (like me) who just don’t know what the hell they’re doing with their lives, art or anything else.

People don’t always talk about the instructors who have inspired them. And honestly, though I’m easily intrigued, I'm not so easily inspired. You knew us all on a personal level. You actually made the effort to understand us and how we worked. I wasn’t just interested in what you taught us, I wanted to make sure that I took it for what it was and did my best with it.

This semester was astoundingly therapeutic and I learned a lot from you about art and self-expression, and I will always cherish that. I’m not there yet, but I’m working on becoming more fearless in my work as well as my life, and having you as a professor was a catalyst for this journey. I feel like I have become a better writer, artist and person because of your class and I want to make sure that you know what you've done for me.