CraftyJaja Tutor Interview

Q. Hi, CraftyJaja! please introduce yourself!: A. Sure! My name is Janine, please call me Jaja. Ever since I was a kid, I love doing art so much. I did receive a lot of motivation and appreciation from people around me. It drives my enthusiasm and excitement to feed my art soul. I draw as much as I can, I paint, I craft and I end up so very happy. This is the reason why I pursue taking an art and design career. Then, yes, I took Fine Arts major in Interior Design at Polytechnic University of the Philippines and finished my Bachelor’s Degree just last year (2015). I became a furniture designer in one of the good rattan furniture company here in the Philippines. Been working there since I was a student, probably 2012. Right now, I’m preparing for some career advancement. Before having my first experience of teaching here in Cafetalk, I’ve been helping and teaching arts and crafts to my friends and relatives especially my young age cousins, whenever I have free time. I was so glad to hear a lot of story telling. I keep learning from them. Because of our wonderful time together doing some artworks with the nice chit chats, we always end up having a very nice art project output. And what’s really priceless is hearing back from them that they learn something amazing from me. That is how I start my teaching dream. And then my spirit has been lifted when I found this Cafetalk page a few months ago. It’s so cool! I never thought that this page will be an outlet for my teaching interest! This is also an amazing moment for me to practice more the basics and foundations of Art and Design. With that, I humbly believe that I keep growing every day. I am so thankful that I can balance my busy days working with the interesting people and students here. I am always grateful that I can find some time and provide a better spot for my hobbies of making artworks and designs on small stuff or the crafts! I love to craft so much! Oh! and I must tell that I so love teaching and sharing what I’ve learned! A little more about myself. My friends, family and some people who used to know me said that I have that cheerful and jolly personality. And I humbly agree with them! hahaha! I might just be a happy type of person who loves having and creating a positive environment, as I strongly believe that you can do anything you love with a happy heart and soul. I drowned myself with lots of appreciation to every wonderful thing around me even those little source of happiness. It simply serves as my fuel to my excitement towards meeting new people, discovering new things, doing the things I always love and sharing the positive and good vibes. And that I think, having these jolly smiles plus an art opportunity to express more of myself, might also be a perfect idea to transfer some excitement to my students as well. Also, I don’t want to miss out sharing to you that I love cats so very much! They are all such angels. I so love how they save people on their hard and bad days. They put some extra ordinary smiles to your face and just spread the love! I’ll make sure to find some time and make more cat artworks soon to express my big love for them. Hahaha!
Q. I want to know where you live. Could you please tell us about your current city?: A. I grew up from the small district of Pandacan at Manila City. Manila is the capital city of the Philippines with different districts, and the district of Pandacan plays a big role in my childhood memories. My family and I always love the annual celebration of our religious cultural event called the “Buling Buling” where we dance on the street to honor an infant image of Jesus Christ, the patron Sto. Nino de Pandacan. We offer our traditional dance and we are beautifully dressed while everyone is watching. Every movement shows gratitude, worship, praise and faith. It has been our devotion as Filipino Catholics. Sometimes we see foreigners celebrating with us on this grand feast held in different places in the entire Philippines at the same time, every Saturday in the third week of January. The picture of me with my neighbor and old family friends in the blue gown is taken last January 2016. After 14 years of residing in Pandacan, Manila, we moved to the small city of San Jose Del Monte in the province of Bulacan. It’s a nice and a more quiet place where most areas are residential areas. This city is developing yet. The next city from us have lots of forests and hills with lesser residential areas. Though we love living here, our heart still goes back to old memories and old friends from Pandacan. That’s why we see to it that we find time to visit there once in awhile.
Q. How do you spend your days off ? Is there anything you’ve gotten into lately?: A. I love spending day offs at home with my family. Maybe just having some meal together, having some ice cream while watching tv, or having some few talks and chats if we are resting. Sometimes it has to be outside and I still choose to spend more time with them than my friends. We go to the beach or somewhere cool when the weather is good, visiting family friends or relatives, eat outside, go to church and shop later for some stuff together. I love hanging out with my friends too! It’s just that, my family and I, seldom meet the same day offs. That’s why I put so much value to every opportunity of our quality time. Yet, I struggle to reserve some perfect slot for my awesome friends as well or I’m dead from this people. Hahaha! Our latest getaway this summer is our visit to the place of my cousin’s fiance, the beautiful province of Tanay Rizal, Philippines, We celebrated the blessing they got from their parents after the “Pamamanhikan” (or the Filipino tradition where the family of the boy goes to the house of the lady to meet up with her family for a formal marriage proposal). We celebrated in the simplest way and just the typical bonding. We went to a fresh river, spend mornings and nights to Mt. Daraitan, harvest vegetables and tropical fruits in the mountains, having karaoke over drinks and enjoy our three days stay and happy moments there with the soon to be bride and groom. Those are one of the priceless moments with my family and relatives. If we are just resting at home, I see to it that I am also getting time for my artsy soul. I craft at home, draw and paint whenever I have free time. Having some time alone is very precious to me! I reconnect with myself, I come up with spirit-lifting thoughts with arts, I watch movies! Sometimes I am trying to write something like a novel because literature is my other interest though I am no good for that field. I just badly want to write a book someday and to become an awesome author too! Silly but my vision for that is blurry most of the time! Yet I still love my visions. Hahaha! I unwind and feed my soul with interesting stuff and it will forever be an awesome moment for me! That’s how I spend my precious time alone.
Q. I’m interested in your lesson, “Kid’s Art Summer Special Workshop” In this lesson, do students need to prepare before the lesson?: A. Ahh Yes! This Summer Workshop Lesson is special to me. I carefully choose and prepare limited summer themed artwork lessons for kids to age 4 – 12. I struggle to incorporate kid’s summer fun storytelling for every artwork, which I firmly believe the soul of this art workshop. Our young learner ‘s personal experience becomes more interesting and special when they are being heard by their guardian and parents. On the other side, it also promotes growth for the kids to be more responsive to activities, gain confidence, be more expressive and some more growth promoted by the art. In regards to preparation for my lesson, I am sending the organized lists of my summer themed artwork lesson line ups with the sample artwork photo references for a more comprehensible reference. As they choose their selected artwork, I will then follow up sending the Lesson Overview so that parents will have the idea of my lesson’s flow , the artwork activity, and the art materials they have to prepare before the lesson. I keep my file simple yet detailed for their easy references. For the art materials and tools, we will use recycle materials like (cardboards, used yarn thread, paper plates, egg carton, cupcake liner, etc), we also need paints or drawing markers and some more easy to provide stuff yet a unique set of art tools and materials. This will help the kids to wildly imagine that art has no limit. I encourage them to manipulate their art tools and material on their own unique and creative way. I also look forward to providing a happy platform for them to express more of themselves freely.
Q. Please tell us about the main feature of your lessons.: A. The main features of my lesson are the basic of Visual Arts and the Fundamentals of Design that will help learners become independent when they make their own artworks in the future. This will serve as a lifetime knowledge for every art students. When you have this very foundation of art and design, you can surely apply it to everyday life. I keep telling my students especially the adult learners, that growing and broadening their knowledge of art and design is an awesome idea that they shouldn’t miss out. In teaching, I approach both the visual artist’s and designer’s point of views so that they can widen their interest and put no limits to art and design field. Later on, especially on the crucial part and very first set of my basic lessons, they see little by little improvements. I provide extra challenging worksheets, homework, different art challenges and problems that will make them think deeper about the logic of arts; Also to train both their eyes, mind and observational skills. I struggle and put attention to fostering independence and appreciative attitude for every art students. The application of the basic knowledge in an exciting and fun way is indeed the most special part of my art training and lessons. I design my curriculum in an organized manner and carefully select artworks that will cater to their level and help them with their art and design learning goals. I provide art lessons for the highschool and adult learners and of course for the kids or the young learners. I love kids so much! They entertain me with a lot of stories they have in mind. And that I think, I shouldn’t miss the wonderful time with them. They are so sweet and they are my favorite students indeed! They keep motivating me to teach with love
Q. What are you most careful of when you teach your students?: A. I’m extra careful when it comes to demonstrations and showing off sample artworks. Student’s,especially the kids, may sometimes loose their confidence and think that my artworks or other artworks’ are the basis of the good artworks. I keep reminding all my students, that every person and artists are unique with their own set or own versions of an artistic visual side. Yet we don’t have to skip the “Art Critique” part or the exchange of opinions and analysis with somebody’s artworks, as it is another learning strategy for the students. I struggle to make them appreciate other’s artists’ works but I’m extra careful to misleading their thoughts to unnecessary comparisons. I keep telling them that as soon as their eyes, heart and soul are trained to be more appreciative, they will learn so much from it and it would help them grow and create something better. This is the reason why I foster independence to their critical thinking and creative imaginations. I let them discover their strengths and embrace their weaknesses on arts. Sooner or later, as long as they keep their spirit excited, things will improve. Just never stop learning. I prepare the helpful set of visual presentations and handouts for them to enrich their learning opportunity at its fullest. As part of my teaching strategy, I’m giving only brief set rather than a complete set of instructions. I lessen my time for the demonstrations and put more attention to their own and wonderful discoveries. I always refer them to go back to the basic and keep guiding them until they make it.
Q. Finally, would you like to leave a message for our students?: A. Do not rush things! You can’t learn drawing, painting, designing or crafting in just a day or two. Learning is always a process! That’s why we have to go through the basic. Just keep the enthusiasm because you can always make something amazing out of your happy heart and soul. Let’s express more of ourselves through Arts. One more thing, try to gain back your confidence again, just how you did when you’re once a kid. Just enjoy every strokes and color of art. Never think that you can never make it; that as much as you want to, you can never draw or paint like someone good at it. Get rid of the trap! Always remember that Michelangelo once said that “a man paints with his brain and not by his hands”. Just learn the basic, grow and work with the like-minded people, seek for other learning resources, go to the museums and exhibits, watch art video tutorials, read good books, magazines, and blogs, because at the end of each day, “YOU” are responsible for your own growth. Keep going and keep learning. Let’s discover what you’ve got beyond your imagination. I’m here to help you and also to learn more from you!