Teaching Philosophy

I believe a classroom to be a haven of learning. An incubator of inspiration and movement. I hope ideas fly like color and take the form of terms you can understand and make sense of and connect with. I meditate on respect and community and the fact that our differences are what keeps us the same. I hope you make connections and make decisions and risks you don’t regret, but revere. I hope you embrace mistakes with gratitude and acceptance of their gracious happening. I hope you see in colorful mappings of your process and find your way to the bigger idea.

I hope I influence you not to mimic, but to work within your internal and external sacred space. To stand your own and grow into your own. I hope some of you will find that when you have nothing else, you have art and through close observation, all of life can be beautiful. I hope this space moves you and keeps you safe. I hope you find safety in art. I hope you’re confused by art. I hope you are brought clarity from art. I hope art brings confusion again. I hope you slow to observe. I hope you slow to document. I hope you reflect and reflect on the reflection. I hope you find your visual sense a powerful tool and everyone’s hands the machine of expression. I hope you feel free to create independently, but more so, I hope you find the energy of others in meaningful collaboration. I hope we have community. I always hope for community.

I hope you feel a part of yourself and the greater global family when you’re processing visual inquiry. I hope you learn a new language. I hope you learn the personal, visual languages of others and realize the potential for peaceful co-existence. You’ll realize the power of a medium and develop a reciprocal relationship of trust and loyalty.

In my classroom, you are significant and you all belong. Unconditional. You are an artist. A being capable of a original thought and a vessel of creation. May you always wonder. May you always discover and uncover and manipulate and re-work and find a way. Find your way.