Mr. Downey

Deaven Downey "Mr. Downey"

Contact me:

Email: d.downey@westside.k12.ca.us

Biography:

Hello everyone! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mr. Downey and I've been perusing my love of creating personal and professional artwork for the last 15 years! I was born and raised here in the Antelope Valley, and 4 moths ago my wife and I welcome our son into the world! I am also a graduate from California State University Northridge with an Arts degree focused in Illustration and Animation. My passion for Art is only matched by my love for teaching. I was very fortunate to have incredible Art teachers growing up who helped me find myself as an Artist, and they further inspired me to want to do the same thing for others. I passionately believe that everyone is an artist, some are just more practiced then others.

Philosophy:

"Failure is success in progress." - Albert Einstein

I became interested in drawing and painting like most do at a very young age, but didn't seriously start practicing these skills until I was much older. At the time I didn't think I could take art seriously as I'd seen others making work that I thought was better, so I decided (like many do) that others are "born" artists and I was not. I believe that this is one of the biggest and most universal misconceptions to overcome during early art education. The truth is that creating art is something that must be practiced and like any skill needs to be developed over time.

This thinking takes hold of us because unlike other academic pursuits, where every student usually begins learning at roughly the same point, art is something each student has their own personal history with. Even at the age of 5 some kids watch videos and practice drawing or painting at home. Early in our school experience this leads to the misunderstanding that some students are "born" artists. This problem has only grown as the world becomes increasingly connected online and socially critical, where students can watch videos of content creating with no context. We have no idea how much practice someone has put in and mistakenly assume that others are just capable of something we are not.

My primary teaching philosophy is that creating artwork is a skill we can all learn. There are technical rules and techniques that can be practiced, and over time used to show that each person has their own voice and expression only they can show to the world. Every great artist has failed more times then they can count, because perfect artwork does not exist. So just remember, there is no such thing as a perfect Artist only a practiced one.