About Me

Trying my best to teach art with my whole heart.

Hi, I'm Kim DeRisi and I'm an elementary public school Art Teacher.  I have been teaching art to children for twenty years and can honestly say I still LOVE doing so. In addition to teaching in a public school, I teach evening art classes and summer art camp in the studio I created in the basement of my home. I named my studio, spiral studio because I've always been drawn to the  spiral motif.  It's been called the eternal sign of the creative and just like the line of the spiral never ends, the spiral represents so many things such as nature, spiritual development, energy and the journey of life.  As much as I love being a teacher, my favorite title is being mom to a 15 year old daughter and an adorable Goldendoodle.   

My philosophy towards teaching art is rooted in my belief about the power of art. Art unleashes our creativity, it's mindfullness and connects us in beautiful ways.  I believe every child is an artist and every person should have access to the arts in some way. My graduate studies focused on social justice and I've been striving to create an art education curriculum that is meaningful. I understand the notion of "art for arts sake" and believe that young children do this on their own all the time, however, it's my job as a teacher to introduce them to art from many different artists and many different cultures and many different media and to think critically about the world we live in. My objective is always the topic at hand and the art project is the means for teaching that topic.

 "I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, and change us." Jhumpa Lahiri, author