On Teaching Art

My philosophy of teaching is a humanistic one: students are basically good; learning is intuitive as well as intellectual; successful curriculum addresses the student as well as his/her ever-evolving environment; discipline is essential for harmony; and freedom is essential for creativity. With the studio/lecture hall, there exists a reciprocal exchange between student and professor. Within the institution (ideally), there exists an integration of disciplines - nourishing a neo-Renaissance community of artists and musicians, scientists, writers and philsophers. As an educator I believe strongly in life's lessons; that formal education is not necessarily the cornerstone of learning; that improvisation and problem-solving are foundations of creativity. A professor of painting, drawing, life drawing, as well as the history of art for over twenty-five years, I methodically incorporate an art history component into the studio - consciously confronting students with a high aesthetic context and the notion of collective unconscious imagery. When working with students who might be challenged, the collective language of painting and drawing become socially engaging tools, through which such students are brought into universal inclusion, thereby promoting integration and socialization. Finally, I believe strongly that since prehistory artists were among early "specialists" who maintained human records. I am committed to preparing artists to act as visual weathervanes, sensitive and responsive to streams of change; committed to instilling in students their responsibility to be actively involved in the achievements, anxieties and failures of the times - to respond to profound circumstances. It is safe to say that artists will always be society's responders, and as a professor of fine arts, I unequivocally encourage the ways and means for visual historians to continue to create and record.