Any student can get something valuable out of an art class. I treat students as life long artists who I am meeting on one point in their learning process. It is my job to help them get to the next point.  My experience with community work and teaching help me understand a wide group of students, including those with disabilities and economic struggles.  This work with the most vulnerable members of society has helped me to challenge students to excel while accommodating the complexities of their lives.

There is a point in each class where students have mastered basic skills of the medium, and they can sustain a dialogue about form, content, and personal meaning in their work.  At this point teaching becomes more of a collaborative exploration of the medium and subject, rather than a transfer of knowledge.  I introduce students to historical and contemporary art work in order to create a context for their work, as well as expand their ideas of what is possible in the arts.  I also encourage students to allow life experiences and ideas from other classes into the content of their work.  I emphasize that when artists care deeply about their subject matter, this level of engagement comes across to the viewer.  

 As I help students find what matters to them, they also become more motivated about making art. Students often have low tolerance for making mistakes, and that can be a barrier to artistic growth and learning.  Fear of mistakes hampers risk taking, an important aspect of art making, so I encourage students to work through mistakes and learn from them.  I achieve this partly by requiring several small assignments, rather than solely focusing on finished projects.   I look at all preparatory work, and I emphasize process as much as possible.  I discuss the value and necessity of mistakes--the masterpiece may only come once in a lifetime; while you are waiting for it you might as well learn a few things.

One of the most difficult questions for students, as well as for artists is "when is it finished?"  Beginning students are often precious about that first mark, shape, or idea.  I ask students to stretch beyond their first ideas, beyond their comfortable limits of when a piece is finished.  Sometimes I ask students to risk "ruining" pieces for the sake of pushing them beyond a comfortable point and seeing more possibilities.