Final Reflections

How have your come to understand transformative learning, imagination, individuation and authenticity and what meaning does that hold for you in your personal and/or professional life?

I think the greatest thing I learned as a practicing artist, is that the arts can be a vehicle for facilitating a reflection on transformative experiences. While I (somewhat) inherently already knew this, it was extremely valuable to dip my toes in new experiences, outside of my comfort zone. 
During our Zoom session presentation(s), I noticed that many of us decided to go down unfamiliar avenues, work with mediums and tools that we have yet to master. Perhaps, this is what mirrors the transformative experience. The unknown, disorienting us, asking us to rise with it and move forward, and make meaning, and make something new. 

This course has introduced me to scholars and literature that will ultimately (and eventually) seep into my dissertation. I had mentioned in the very beginning of the course that my research deals with artist residencies within communities and how, if at all, a reciprocity of transformation occurs between the artist, working in their new, unknown, yet temporary space, and community, receiving and interacting with an artist from another place. What does this exchange mean? What can be learned? This course has pointed me towards a field I didn't know existed. 

It was also extremely eye opening to see different visual arts research methods being practiced within several of the readings and my choice book. Working the Margins of Community-Based Adult Learning: The Power of Arts-Making in Finding Voice and Creating Conditions for Seeing/Listening (International Issues in Adult Education. As a professional, both artist and scholar, I'd like to continue to challenge and ask myself to dive into the unknown and unfamiliar. Albeit, materials or research methods. 


I must admit, I've suffered from 'imposter syndrome' since my arrival to TC in 2015; often feeling like I'm in a world where I don't belong, doubting my own authenticity, intelligence, and agency. The dialogue that took place this semester within this course has given me a bit of room to breathe and trust the process, and try new processes along the way. Each and everyone of you in this course is amazing, unique, and so strong. This is why relationships is such a crucial theme in the transformative process--we get by with a little help from our friends.