Studio Classes

Not all of us teach, but everyone, at one time or another, learns. Learning is the common ground I share with my students. As a teacher, I am constantly learning about learning, striving to identify the diverse needs of my students, and inventing new strategies of instruction in response. My passion for teaching lies in the satisfaction of knowing when I’ve helped a student understand his or her own learning process.

Teaching a student to draw or paint isn’t enough; if I can teach them to learn better, I’ve truly empowered the individual. With this goal in mind, I try to foster an atmosphere of open communication in the classes that I teach; the more my students fell free to discuss my teaching and their learning with me, the better I am able to help them clarify and reach their goals.

Because the needs of any two individuals- not to mention 20 individuals-are always going to differ, I’ve learned to be flexible about the structure of the courses that I teach, whether that means altering a syllabus half-way through the semester or changing a lesson plan half-way through a class to try a different strategy. Despite these adjustments, one thing remains a constant in my teaching: a strong emphasis on fundamental skills. At a time when the place of so-called “basic” skills in the visual arts is undergoing re-evaluation, I continue to believe in the importance of foundations. As an artist, I make images in an effort to share my profound visual experience of this world with others. As a teacher, I am concerned with giving my students the aesthetic sensitivity and the technical means necessary to do the same. This approach is a direct product of my own education. As a graduate student at Indiana, the philosophy of painting and drawing begins with seeing and develops out of responsible/responsive mark-making. I’ve never been given a compelling reason to reject this train of thought.

In learning to paint and draw from observation, my students most importantly learn to see, and once an individual has viewed the world with that degree of clarity and comprehension, his or her life is changed permanently.