How long must one study a subject or idea to truly know something?  My answer to this question is: knowledge is a continual process that cannot be confined. More completely, knowledge is a process that evolves and develops through hard work, close observation, and persistence. For students of art, knowledge is a process that begins with creative discovery.

Students must explore and cultivate the ideas and techniques that are fundamental to creative development. It is from this point that one can then work a way out to find the edges, those places where creativity is found. In the study of art and art practice, knowledge often begins with the mundane and tangible. It is the artist’s job to see the potential in the everyday.

As a teacher, I encourage students to freely challenge themselves and those around them and to be inquisitive. I stress the importance of looking, whether it be at the self or an object of nature, and of observing the reaction one has to what one sees.  Through close scrutiny and observation, students develop a unique, insightful, and often revealing, relationship with the chosen subject. In the courses that I teach, I stress that students work slowly in a detailed manner— wide-eyed and open-minded in order to catch each thing, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. 

Studio instruction involves constant conversation with students about what they are looking at, fundamentally, and what they are seeing, conceptually.  In these conversations, I challenge students to rethink technique and process in order to overcome obstacles. I also stress the importance of considering art history, theory and contemporary issues, which can provide inspiration and understanding. Learning to speak eloquently and intelligently about one’s work, I believe, is absolutely fundamental to arts education.  My goal is to help a student develop his or her own voice.  Moreover, I instruct how the use of that voice can enable a more-fully informed understanding of one’s own work, as well as the work of others. 

I constantly challenge my students to participate in critiques, discussions, and in-class lectures.  I also stress, as part of my syllabus, that the students shift their focus outside of the classroom to include literature, music, dance, film, and other art forms. Creative potential exists in all disciplines, if a student has been taught to look for and draw upon that potential. As a teacher I strive to promote the process of finding knowledge, by giving the students the courage to seek it in the first place.