TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Recently a professor of mine said, “Art is about creating and editing”, and this resonated with me. How do artists edit and how do art professors facilitate this skill to art students? How do we decide what to leave in and what to leave out? I believe this editing is achieved automatically by the human optical system. It is merely learning to notice it and and comprehending the difference between visual information in design and conceptual forms. This balance of creating visually satisfying composition combined with the inclusion, or editing out, of form is a powerful way of processing painting and drawing. My students learning to draw from life is not merely about tradition. This skill set is about sensing the interaction of the brains and eyes. I believe students working in my courses and individually learn to relax into their studio space, connect with what they visualize, and learn various methods of conveying their vision. I typically share artists from history associated with the three academic historical painting academies because of their lack of technology, skills, and masterful depictions of complexity conveyed through simplicity and skill.

While I have specific methods I enjoy using to teach, from my own training, I work with artists using a combination of linear and non-linear learning styles while applying my visual methodology. Artists can hit walls in their learning process and going outside of the typically steps of historical teaching pedagogy is apart of my method for assisting students through their learning challenges. In my teaching, it is important to me to address how teaching could approach learning broadly and specifically. I do this by using traditional methods of drawing and painting to introduce artists to a specific style and skill set. I then concentrate on the development of the individuals work by asking questions about their thoughts, process, and challenges in their work facilitate individuation in their working methods.

Learning is not a straight and narrow road and I believe the detours within an individuals experience are the foundation to their personal working practice. While I think structure, hard work, are the building blocks of an artists career I also each individual will arrive at those building blocks through various routes. I am a teacher who enjoys working with artists who bring their thoughts and philosophy about life and skill based drawing and painting to the easel as we work together. When learning music you need to learn scales before playing an instrument. Students must be almost masterful before playing in a symphony. Similarly, the scales music students learn eventually collide with an understanding of how notes blend together to create music. For my art student I hope to place appropriate challenges in their learning process and inspiringly faciliate their way through the exercise. There are students who need to assistance to see,know, and articulate the structure of forms and space before they are able to deconstruct those forms to be include in their compositions. I so much when my students experience a method of seeing that will add to their tools of drawing and painting.

We are living in a vibrant time for artists where traditional technique meets modern artistic concepts, and my hope is to use traditional training in combination with different learning styles to create an appropriate learning studio for each student.