Art Begets Art Begets Scholarship Begets Art Begets Friendship Begets Rhythm Begets Collaboration Begets Community Begets Change Begets Hope

 

Exhibit A. A couple of years ago while presenting with Liz Lewis, Dickinson College, and Kelly Chandler Olcott, Syracuse University, at the Literacy Research Association, I found a background that had birds taking flight over three waves. I chose it as our presentation background because I thought it brought forth a happy tone, something summer-like, that would be a nice backdrop for our iterative, collaborative research on summer writing programs. As we presented, I realized that one of the pieces of data, an essay written by a girl with dyslexia and ADHD, described her thinking processes as an ability to weather a storm, especially as she tried to position herself as a high school senior.

Fast forward. After the conference I contacted the artist, Annemieka Hopps Davidson, to see if she had prints for sale - Sunny Days, Three Waves. She was beyond gracious and impressed by the story I told. I bought three: one for Kelly, one for Liz, and one for the student so she could hang it in her room as a reminder of how inspirational her writing was to me and my colleagues. 

Thursday morning, the image of the print appeared in my photo-memory log and I sent it Liz and Kelly to celebrate our recent publication, Iterating for Inclusion: A Cross-Case Analysis of Three Summer Writing Programs for Youth, that appeared in Reading & Writing Quarterly. Within minutes, Liz sent me a photo of where it sits in her office as inspiration. A few minutes later, Kelly sent a photo from her home office. 

Exhibit B.  Kelly's home office. Something about the story of art chosen as a metaphor for the scholarship put a smile on my face early in the morning, and I moved on with my day. In the evening, however, the three of us heard back from editors reading another piece we collaborated on (more to come on that later in the year). They are choosing to let it go in print with only minor edits.

I wrote them both to say, "Wow. Isn't that a coincidence? Today, when I texted Davidson's art work early this morning?"

I spent a portion of my day yesterday making the slight changes requested and, as always, tweaking the visuals (table and figures) included in what we wrote so that it matched the slight revisions. 

2020 was the darkest 365 days I've ever experienced, but I was born in 1972 in the United States, so my blessings are plentiful (dark in our privileged, Western world, is only a slight gray). Still, the last year casted multiple doubts about humanity, purpose, knowledge, truth, and vision. The yellow skies, blue waves, and movement by birds in Davidson's print remind me of the rhythm and flow of the work many of us do in higher education, especially when the goal is to build better teacher leadership and to advocate for best practices for all youth. 

Exhibit C. This is the thing about art and why it is so necessary for critical thinking. I'm a visual learner and need to sketch out my ideas with imagery. For me, art anchors the thinking, even when I don't exactly know why I choose what I choose. Davidson's print was perfect for our collaboration and should the three of us ever turn our partnered work into a book, I'd definitely want it as the cover. Sunny Days - Three Waves tells the story in color that matches the one we tell in research (usually in black and white).

A presentation in 2019 which tracked several iterations of collaboration turned into what appears to be two solid publications for 2021 (fingers crossed on the 2nd...perhaps it will go to print in 2022). I'm proud. Knowledge building, fact-checking, and truth-identifying takes scrutiny, hard work, critical skepticism of what we are seeing, and a need to put evidence to the assertions we're making. Iterating like we have can't be a tsunami or flash flood from the rains of the everyday - both, of which, cause instant fear, paranoia, and hardship. Rather, the work we do arrives only through following the rhythm of birds and waves...a belief that the sun will shine again and the work continues.

Here's to the sunny days (and even the not so sunny ones). Here's to the birds. But more importantly, here's to the predictability of moon cycles, water patterns, waves, and flight that bring us meaning and purpose. I am, once again, fortunate to paddle board with my colleagues, even as we navigate the waters in different states.