Teaching Philosophy
I am an artist; I am an educator. Neither identity overshadows the other; they are inseparable and enrich one another. As a educator, I strive for my students to synthesize and translate knowledge. Knowledge brings about understanding. Understanding enhances the pursuit of knowledge. Through fostering active engagement in their visual culture, I push my students to become creators of the world around them instead of passive viewers. I have actively refined this philosophy throughout my professional career and through the pursuit of continuing education by receiving an EdM in Art Education and MFA in Ceramics. The diversity in my educational and professional experiences has afforded me a unique skillset to create a rigorous and nurturing classroom environment where my students have the necessary support to expand their artistic practice.
My ceramics classroom is a construction of in class exercises, discussions, lectures, and critique. I approach teaching with the same interdisciplinary style as my art practice. Within my studio classroom, my students explore and research concepts of gender, sexuality, and social responsibilities through performance, sculpture, interventions and vessel-making. Knowledge is inherently interdisciplinary; ways of seeing, skills, and methods build upon each other and are applicable across media and subject. As an artist educator, my goal is to foster an environment where my students can gain the necessary skills to become producing and exhibiting artists. The balance of hands-on discovery learning, student-oriented curriculum and group discussion that emphasizes social and personal awareness are the fundamentals of my curriculum. Under my instruction, students are able to take in information, process it, and manipulate it through their own lens. My courses are student-centered with an emphasis in developing conceptual and well-crafted work. My students approach art as a form in which to explore interests, issues, and themes that relate to them and their world.
As developing artists, I require my students to actively engage in personal exploration to identify the often unidentified or innate desires to make as means of honing their artistic practice and articulating what is the change they want to be in the (art) world. The foundations classroom experience is about exploration of materials, subject, and tools. My foundations curriculum encourages students to investigate how a variety of media can speak differently to a concept and which medium is best to communicate their ideas.
My intermediate studio classroom begins with extensive skill-building and exposure to the diversity of clay within ceramic history and contemporary art. As the course level progresses to advanced, so does the students’ independence of subject and construction. In understanding that no student learns and develops in the same manner, my students engage in a variety of in class experiments, readings, recordings, and videos. By creating a wealth of information that they can draw from and branch off in their own research I am allowing them to be the navigators of their own artistic practice.
As a graduate advisor, my role as instructor shifts from expert and lecturer to facilitator and resource. Through each level, critique is a strong core to my student’s learning process. It is a time when students must learn to translate their artwork from a visual language into a written and auditory explanation. Critique also allows for reflective and reflexive growth. Through the exploration of concepts, they will gain a firm technical understanding of ceramics building, kiln-firing, and glaze composition to aid their message. Ceramics can only be a medium of communication if one has a strong understanding of the material. This understanding is gained through practice, struggle, experimentation, and joy.
My ceramics classroom is a construction of in class exercises, discussions, lectures, and critique. I approach teaching with the same interdisciplinary style as my art practice. Within my studio classroom, my students explore and research concepts of gender, sexuality, and social responsibilities through performance, sculpture, interventions and vessel-making. Knowledge is inherently interdisciplinary; ways of seeing, skills, and methods build upon each other and are applicable across media and subject. As an artist educator, my goal is to foster an environment where my students can gain the necessary skills to become producing and exhibiting artists. The balance of hands-on discovery learning, student-oriented curriculum and group discussion that emphasizes social and personal awareness are the fundamentals of my curriculum. Under my instruction, students are able to take in information, process it, and manipulate it through their own lens. My courses are student-centered with an emphasis in developing conceptual and well-crafted work. My students approach art as a form in which to explore interests, issues, and themes that relate to them and their world.
As developing artists, I require my students to actively engage in personal exploration to identify the often unidentified or innate desires to make as means of honing their artistic practice and articulating what is the change they want to be in the (art) world. The foundations classroom experience is about exploration of materials, subject, and tools. My foundations curriculum encourages students to investigate how a variety of media can speak differently to a concept and which medium is best to communicate their ideas.
My intermediate studio classroom begins with extensive skill-building and exposure to the diversity of clay within ceramic history and contemporary art. As the course level progresses to advanced, so does the students’ independence of subject and construction. In understanding that no student learns and develops in the same manner, my students engage in a variety of in class experiments, readings, recordings, and videos. By creating a wealth of information that they can draw from and branch off in their own research I am allowing them to be the navigators of their own artistic practice.
As a graduate advisor, my role as instructor shifts from expert and lecturer to facilitator and resource. Through each level, critique is a strong core to my student’s learning process. It is a time when students must learn to translate their artwork from a visual language into a written and auditory explanation. Critique also allows for reflective and reflexive growth. Through the exploration of concepts, they will gain a firm technical understanding of ceramics building, kiln-firing, and glaze composition to aid their message. Ceramics can only be a medium of communication if one has a strong understanding of the material. This understanding is gained through practice, struggle, experimentation, and joy.
