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teaching

MY ARTIST-TEACHER PHILOSOPHY

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I make, I teach. For me the terms ARTIST and TEACHER are more than professional titles; taken together they comprise a hybrid worldview that emerges from near-constant condensing, distilling, framing, questioning and contextualization of ideas, information and abstract concepts in order to engage an audience in dialogue. My practice as artist-teacher centers around the cultivation of the space between the known and the unknown, between problem and solution, or the idea and its manifestation. I strive to create a dynamic learning environment that hinges upon the intersection of critical thinking and making, an environment that immerses students in seminar-style discussion, dedicated work time, 1-on-1 studio visits and critique. 

I strive to construct a classroom-studio environment that functions like a laboratory, where experimentation is essential, where work produces work and learning is not limited to the top-down dissemination of knowledge. I approach my role in the classroom as a catalyst, collaborator, mentor and advisor focused on ideation and critical thinking in order to fuel a culture that plays with taxonomies, encourages leaps in thinking, and values subversive connections and new approaches to making. From the safeness of this environment, students are empowered to take risks, abandon their habits, transcend established logic and deny the stability of repeatable, known results.