I was very lucky to have the opportunity to visit my sibling who's working abroad for a few months. This was to be the beginning of a journey into art, I didn't think I would enjoy or even know how to take. What's more, it was an art journey I didn't expect to have.I landed in London early on Friday morning and 24 hours later we were standing in the Lucian Freud exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. I certainly hadn't planned to be walking among his many famous nude paintings and reflecting on his use of color and light or on his evolving technique and his masculine depiction of women. But, I did. A day later, we were visiting with relatives who live close to Kew Gardens. Toward the end of our trip we stopped into a gallery that displays all of Marianne North's works. She was a English woman born in the early 19th century, who traveled the world painting plants in their natural habitat with such attention to detail that when I stepped into the small museum, it was as if I had been transported to a jungle. The following two days, I meandered solo through the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and started to find artists whose work was truly inspiring like Pierre Bonnard and Spencer Gore. A few days later, on a short visit to Paris, we walked through the great rooms of the Musee D'orsay, spending the first two hours exploring the Degas exhibit and the next few exploring other impressionists and post-impressionists. By the end of my 10 day trip, I had been to six art museums.Each one of these experiences could warrant its own blog post, but together they speak to something larger. For most of my life, art museums have been out of reach. Art was for arty people, art students, the elite few who understood what it could be and over time, visual art became a foreign concept.But, during my crash course through some of the world's most magnificent art museums I found that I truly enjoyed the experience of looking at a piece of art, learning about the historical context or artist's motivations and looking closely at each artist's technique. And color, I found such fascination with use of color! This experience also allowed me to see artists for more than their most famous works. For example, I've always been familiar with Monet's Water Lilies, but I left being so much more moved by his paintings of the Rouen Cathedral in Normandy. It was also a lesson in how visual arts, are intensely iterative and just how much preparation is needed for what eventually becomes a masterpiece. This was particularly obvious in the Degas' exhibit where his sample drawings were on display adjacent to his final paintings.The final part of my journey or perhaps the beginning of a new journey began roughly 18 hours ago. I downloaded the app Paper for the iPad. I started drawing and painting with two of the five tools, a paintbrush and a drawing marker. I've created 8 drawings so far, and I see no end in sight! What I think is so powerful about this tool is that it gives me a canvas, where I feel much freer and perhaps less pressure to be perfect. This morning, I drew a simple scene, my bathtub and the shower curtain. However to do so, I had to think about:

• the proportions so that no one part of the painting was exaggerated
• the angles of the painting to ensure that the third dimension was believable
• how to blend and achieve similar colors
• how to create light and dark

And just as they are bolded, these ideas jumped out at me. These are not new, but it became evident, through my own creation that we could and should weave art into classes and coursework versus keeping it as a separate subject or topic. I feel strongly that visual arts in particular are, and can be, a unique entry point for students. This coupled with technology that allays pressure of perfection, but rather allows one to iterate and create is exciting. What happens when art is a part of the conversation, or a mediating factor in a classroom? My art education ended in 8th grade, having to choose between taking art classes and other electives. But, if there was a way to weave art, be it analysis and conversation or creation, into the classic subject areas, so that it's not divorced from school, somehow separating students or silo-ing others, I think this could have a profound impact on the way students learn and teachers teach.I may not have started as an "art" kid but hereinafter, I am an "art" person.

Bathtub - a draft