Teaching Philosophy

The Bottom Line of my teaching philosophy would have to be to teach my students the value of individual expression. Every person has artistic ability and I would try to encourage my students to dig deep into their souls to extract their 'vision'. I would want them to strive to impress themselves first and others second. To be well rounded and to be fully cognizant of the field of Art I would expose my students to the many aspects of Art as occur among the various cultures of the world. I would ask them to not just say they 'like'(or don't like) something, but would coach them to determine 'why' they like (or don't like) something. In doing so, I believe the student will then be able to determine which form/s of expression best suit his/her tastes.

I strongly believe in the use of In-Class critiques to enhance and sharpen the artist's ability to direct his/her thinking towards execution of their expression. I believe that the classroom is the single best place for critiques as it is a format that allows for investigation, explanation, and evaluation of technique, while at the same time allowing the artist to see his/her work from other artist's perspectives. It will also demonstrate (more effectively than any teacher can ever say) how unique and individual every artist's expression is. If handled properly, the In-Class critique should bolster all student's self images, if not help them correct a faulty technique or two.

I believe that well rounded students should be exposed to as many forms of art as possible, not necessarily to achieve some lofty social objective to increase tolerance (though that would be a nice side-effect), but rather to give the artists as many ideas as possible. Since art is such a 'personal' medium, there are numerous ways for self expression to occur. A valid artist will not accept that there are limits to his/her expression, but will search for a way to fully communicate his/her vision.

As far as 'Art Movements' are concerned, I say its time to relegate modernism and it's disgruntled stepchild, postmodernism, to the past. Let the Art History students dissect these issues, I want my students to forge ahead into the 21^st century creating newer and better Movements. I believe it is a waste of an Artist's energy and time to worry about whether his/her work fits within a certain movement or not. Be bold, go forward, and let others expend their time and energy on esoteric questions.

My philosophy can be boiled down to these two statements:

FIND YOUR OWN EXPRESSION.

ARTISTS NEED TO BE FREE.