Teaching Philosophy

My hope as a professor is to constructively build confidence in all my students as well as equip them with the vocabulary and tools necessary to evaluate their own work.  I focus on every student’s individual approach, whether they are interested in pursuing representational painting, process, and conceptual or performance-based art.  My interest is in teaching students how to interpret art in a multidisciplinary way including art theory and criticism to the completely viscerally responsive action work.

Students are lead to explore contemporary theories and philosophies that have been used to describe periods from neo-classicism to post colonialism.  I teach students techniques from the archival, antiquated techniques of Rembrandt to an appreciation of the ephemeral art practice of Eva Hesse and Wolgang Laib.  Each student develops his/her ability to critique any work and is able to better clarify his/her own purpose as an artist.

In the classroom students are provided the knowledge of contemporary artists that are relevant to their own work.  Then they are required to form an opinion of whether this artist is actually successful or unsuccessful, If so how? If not how?  What would they do differently?  I want to encourage a thirst for more knowledge, more dialogue.  These exercises further clarify the student’s own practice for them to become more prepared for the art world.

In art appreciation courses I focus more on the connection art has to every period through history.  Pointing out its relationship to philosophy, religion, and psychology, so students may truly receive an understanding of how art functions.  Students are also required to write critically about artists from a specific category like Pop art and they choose who is best and why in their theory and methodology.