Statement of Teaching Philosophy

I believe that it is the role of the teacher to provide students with the means for artistic growth. For me this involves the facilitation of educational opportunities of an extra curricular nature as well as during class sessions. In studio art, perhaps more than in many other subjects, the instructor can and should become a role model and mentor for students. A faculty presence in the studio or shop environment can promote a climate of professionalism and provide students with guidance and valuable critical feedback outside of class. Each student has unique creative needs that can only be addressed on an individual basis, and often classroom instruction does not provide the only opportunity to discuss artistic practice or the conceptual basis for it. The classroom is where students can receive valuable feedback from their peers, discuss art historical influences, and contemporary trends. Growth is also dependent on the instructor’s ability to bring out the best effort from each student; to be demanding without discouraging a young and sometimes unsure artist.

In the majority of the introductory courses that I teach, I assign projects that are narrowly focused in both material and subject in order to promote a discourse surrounding the basic elements of form, space, and content and the ways they influence each other. In a student's first sculpture class, for example, they might be required to use only one medium, to learn control of it, and then produce a finished project that accomplishes as much as possible within the limited palate. One assignment that I require at the introductory level is a large-scale plaster construction. This project involves several techniques, but is not intended to be technical training, though students do learn how to properly mix plaster and use several power and hand tools. I instead see it as an exercise that trains the mind to see and build form, and understand real space through formal abstraction from life.

The assignment begins with observation of a real object, which can be no larger than a few inches in any direction. The students then produce slightly larger models in clay in order to begin to understand the form in three dimensions. Once they have discussed their ideas with the class, they modify their idea or begin construction of an armature for a much larger sculpture. The armature is made of wood or heavy gauge wire and poultry netting, covered by a hard shell of plaster and burlap. The armature is then covered in thick plaster, as the student works directly to create shape and texture. When the plaster has solidified, they are able to subtract material with the use of reductive carving processes. The students must fully master these processes of construction and engineering due to the large scale of the project. If they do not, the work will fail to support itself. The finished sculptures are then arranged in a large room or outdoors and a critique is conducted. This process exposes students to discussions of form and scale, and other elements of sculpture such as texture and the relationships between objects that share a space.

I feel that the critique process is very important teaching tool, and I conduct critiques for all of the projects that I assign throughout the semester. When an entire class displays their projects together for discussion, the class is unified and focused on the work. I attempt to make the critique the intellectual reward for hard work in the studio, instead of an examination to be dreaded. During a critique I will often require that the class comments about an individual project while the student who created it remains silent allowing the work to speak for itself, thereby illustrating that the physical object must carry within its form all of the attributes that might successfully convey the content of the work. In introductory courses I use the class critique as a forum for discussion of the fundamental yet complicated components of sculpture and art. This usually involves a series of short lectures on subjects that arise from the objects themselves, illustrating the complexities that can be found in simple artistic gestures and spatial relationships.

The teaching of art is by no means an easy task. The goal is to generate in each student a solid understanding of the material at hand, not only for success in one subject, but so that they might develop their abilities and have success professionally regardless of what they studied as an undergraduate student. In my own sculpture, and in my teaching practice, I want to strike a balance between the conceptual and the intuitive ways of producing work. I want students to be technically proficient and committed to their work, which I expect them to pursue with integrity. I always attempt to emphasize conceptual issues and the fundamentals of form and space equally. Though I provide thorough demonstrations and advise students during class, I also encourage students to take responsibility for their own work, to put real effort into creatively solving any problems that they might encounter. I want students to use the fundamental knowledge that I provide for as a basis for their practice. I want my students to be enabled by technology and interactive media to attain their artistic goals rather than be discouraged by it. I strive to set an example for students by being a presence in the studio as much as possible so that I can see how they work and they in turn can observe me. Above all, students must find their own way. They can only be encouraged to listen to the opinions of others, and to be self-critical and require of themselves a relentless ethic for work and the search for artistic growth. This desire is the most important think that an instructor can instill in a pupil. I ask much of my students because I feel that my most demanding teachers were the ones from whom I learned the most.