My recent work in art collectives and collaborative situations has altered my outlook on how an artist should progress through their ideas and working methods. Making art as an act of putting ideas and abilities to service creates an opportunity for a work or action to find a new reason for being. I have developed a curriculum that encourages the student to explore how one finds meaning in an idea, with special focus on the process of production, noticing how an attention changes as things progress. I show students that finding form is not only picking materials or being committed to an image. I make students parade ideas through a multitude of materials (traditional and non traditional) and methodologies (traditional and non traditional). In the creation of a piece, does what falls off while making inform what is left? Many students will look to thrift store junk piles or the trash heap to find clarity in use and reuse, I ask the student to qualify why this simple act brings meaning, do we have to wear our father’s shoes to know how he steps? I believe that being attentive to your personality including identity is what most art- lookers (curators, gallery owners and viewers) are keen to harvest. Do we forget or find service in the world. My vision feels ever more complete when shared with others. At the root of having a voice is having it heard, choosing the time for presenting that moment is rooted to it being a choice. Market OK For the People Ok but navigating the art-world opportunities can be very alienating. If everything must add up to something many of the choices given should be avoided.

Teaching is an opportunity to commit myself to creating a place where chances are given, to open, refine, define and encourage transformation. At the core of this is the creation of a positive work environment where criticism is respected because students understand my standards and grow to learn the standards of their peers. To encourage this I cover such topics as collaboration, real studio practice including materials and methods and art making as performance. It is my duty to give students a chance to see the freedom in art making while creating methods and strategies to deal with complex issues like material choices, systems of visualization and a having the commitment to seeing a project through to its resolution and potentially resolutions.

I am a sculptor, a painter, a drawer and a printmaker. In teaching I am able to share parts of my personality that doesn’t always make it in to my art. I am an artist that wishes to include everyone in what I see as the great discussions about art. My goals are not only to share that of what I do, but to share what I see as the truths in art and thinking. I wish to make compelling for the student observations I make of artistic practice.

I focus much attention on drawing in ideation. The problems inconceivable before starting can be partially answered in the zone of preproduction. But I ask for more I tell them to use it as a tool in all levels of process. Draw while working, take a break and use drawing to determine where things are and where they could go. I also think its useful to draw the form after its completed. A photograph comes to us, while a drawing arrives. My goals are not only to qualify what makes a good drawing but also, to be aware of the service it can do. Seeing creation as a process utilizing multiple disciplines shows how the tools learned can be used to create problems to solve too. This I’ve seen time and again produces a more genuine work, one built on how rich complexities arrive by way of process.

A young mind has time. As a group they want order but once they find it they become bored. It is their responsibility to find ways and reasons to use what we share.

I am an artist who loves the act of art making. I choose to share what I have been taught and what I see. I believe perception is the root of all art. Art reflects the artist, the viewer reflects about the art. To know what we do, is to know who we are or will become. An artist that knows they are in a continual process of defining themselves through art making will reflect their views and thus make a personal and unique art of their own.

I teach by caring about the individual and how their independent struggle if nurtured will produce a better person, a better maker.