Teaching Statement
I aspire to be an encouragement to my student…leading a disciplined, yet inclusive teaching environment that is free from unnecessary inhibition, working to meet each student’s unique needs. I am all-too familiar with equating my artistic achievement with self-worth. This tension my students feel between their achievement and self-worth is the difficult, gritty, human-side of art teaching that I am highly sensitized to.
With this dichotomy in mind, I encourage students to patiently allow their artistic voices to develop naturally, gradually and intelligently. I challenge students to become historians of their own interests by exploring the totality of a work of art they admire (or do not admire) before casting final judgment. I want students to look beyond the formal appearance of the art and to understand the larger historical and cultural context by which the artist created the work…to build empathy beyond mere understanding.
On teaching technique: I so enjoy reading from the countless artists throughout history in the books of our over-stuffed library shelves. British artist and teacher, Harold Speed (1872-1957) for example, wrote a wonderful perspective on technique in his book, The Practice and Science of Drawing. Speed states:
“The mind cannot concentrate on several things at once. And in planning a course of study it is necessary to divide the subject so that the mind may be concentrated on the difficulties to be overcome, singly.”
Unlike the chaotic schedules of my student’s lives, I find great success when their pace is slowed…and each works toward a cumulative outcome through clearly defined, disciplined, meaningful objectives. It is my intention to help students develop artistic sensibility, not just mastery of craft!
In my opinion creativity is a vocational skill! I am seeing creativity become increasingly valued in education and industry. In recent years I have lectured at various schools and colleges on the topic of Creativity in the Digital Age. By working with my students, I am discovering new ways to help each bridge the gap between studio arts and digital-media…better solutions to critically analyze the form (and function) of digital media, to convey unique stories, causes, expressions and insights in purposeful ways.
As an art instructor, I challenge students of all levels to responsibly embrace technology, glean from art history, write well, speak well, relate well, build empathy, serve others, think outside the box, persevere, seek truth, so that their art is a reflection of these important things!
Over these many years I have witnessed the lives of students deeply enriched, even transformed by realizing that their context and their unique design has the greatest value and fullest potential for purposeful creation!
Their purpose is my purpose.
