Art gives us a voice, transcends language barriers, and makes the invisible visible. Art communicates, art speaks, art has power. I believe if we share our artistic experience with children and youth and provide them with access to the tools to create and explore, we are empowering them to speak their truths, to be heard in visual conversation, and to know themselves. I believe it is my responsibility as an art educator to provide my students with learning experiences in which they can thrive, develop their creative capacity, explore, make meaning, and creative problem solve. Through play, students can thrive in learning through exploration and creative problem solving that will affect them throughout their entire adult lives.It is important to me that through art education my students gain a sense of their creative selves and their individual voice that they will carry with them as essential life skills into adulthood.