I’m Faye, an art educator, mindfulness teacher, and Master of Art Therapy graduate. Before moving into art therapy and arts-based research, I worked across branding, design, and community art education. In 2021, I co-founded Artbeat Academe, where I began teaching children’s art more deeply.

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Over time, I became increasingly interested in what happens when children’s art is treated only as a skill to improve, a product to display, or an activity to fill time. I noticed that children often bring much more into their artwork: questions, fears, humour, values, relationships, and ways of making sense of the world.

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My work now explores art as a way of living and becoming. Through children’s art education, mindfulness, reflective conversation, and arts-based inquiry, I am interested in how art can help children stay connected to their own ways of seeing, thinking, feeling, and valuing.

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Artonomy grew from this work. It brings together art and autonomy: the idea that art can help us work with the forces that shape us, rather than simply absorb them.