Current Courses

Spring 2025

  • ART 3400-002
    Making in Metal
  • ART 3410-001
    Conceptual Practices
  • ART 4410-001
    Studio Practice I
  • ART 6000-003
    Post-Degree Studio
  • ART 6420-001
    Grad Projects-Sculpt
  • SCLPT 3400-002
    Making in Metal
  • SCLPT 3410-001
    Conceptual Practices

Fall 2024

Teaching Philosophy

Equal parts observation and inquiry, teaching art means paying close attention to each student in an attempt to identify their interests, goals, and desires. A student's best learning experience begins when they believe in their unique voice and the potential impact of their own ideas through art. When students are confident that I believe in them this same way, the dialogue can truly begin. Dialogue becomes central in the pedagogy; between maker and material, teacher and student, artist and critic, the moment and history.

Introducing new skills and processes is also fundamental in teaching art. As students experiment with different materials, tools, or processes, they find expanded language for making their work. While providing specific directives, I encourage students to confront conceptual dilemmas, as this provides the opportunity for creative problem solving and individual development. As an artist with an abiding practice, it is my goal to mentor student artists not only in finding and developing their own unique voice but also in acquiring the skills and knowledge they need to continually advance their own art practice.

In the classroom, I establish a community of support and encouragement that is balanced by thoughtful critique and historical analysis. Students thrive when they invest in the classroom community. This investment builds trust where students feel safe taking risks and confronting new territories both conceptually and technically. Class lectures and assignments lead to open discussions where students collectively problem-solve and debate issues. The classroom is always a safe space where students clarify their ideas and determine what motivates and defines their work. As students become more confident and open, they in turn, become more critically aware of their own views, which is an essential part of a rigorous art practice.

I don’t think that art, either historical or contemporary, is a pattern to follow; rather it is a window into a world of possibility where students/artists may expand their powers of observation, acquire a self-critical approach to their thinking, and see themselves in common with another. As an educator and artist, I am committed to being an available asset and reliable counsel to my students and fellow artists. My hope is to assist them in achieving fluency and accuracy in their art practice and to deeply consider their purpose.

Teaching is a vital part of my life and art practice. In working with students, I have experienced firsthand the confidence, trust, inspiration, and growth that are possible when individuals come together in a supportive learning environment. My goal is to provide a critical arts education to students and to inspire them to realize the necessity of the arts and its social, cultural, and historical value.

Courses I Teach

  • ART / SCLPT 3400-001 - Making In Metal
    The course is an introduction to metal fabrication equipment, techniques, materials, and design. Studio works produced in the course will encounter concerns such as scale, structural integrity, and connections or fittings. Projects are designed to establish relationships between materials, structure, and space. The curriculum includes oxyacetylene welding, cutting, and brazing, MIG welding, and basic forge operations, mold-making, metal casting, and finishing. Sculptural works, as well as competency tests, are required.
  • ART / SCLPT 3410-001 - Conceptual Practices
    This course initiates questions of artistic intent and establishes conceptual premises in sculpture. Students develop basic research skills, draft proposals and statements, and begin to establish an individual artistic vocabulary. It is expected that the students create studio works related to these investigations. The curriculum includes regular seminar discussions and presentations based on assigned readings, local lectures, and visiting researchers. Contemporary issues and ideas in sculpture are a primary focus of these discussions.
  • ART / SCLPT 3430 - Working Wood
    This is a sculpture class with wood at its center. We will investigate our relationship to material and to the social space that furniture controls and creates, as a departure into sculptural form. We will investigate a variety of techniques and processes for reimagining the built world through research, discussion, and making. We will explore advanced techniques in woodworking through a series of exercises and projects. Students will learn wood fabrication, joinery, lamination, and equipment safety. This is an integral part of the intermedia sculpture emphasis designed to support and further develop student work.
  • ART 2021 - Action
    This Foundations course, required of all BFA majors in Studio Art, introduces students to the basic principles of time, storytelling, four-dimensional studio practices, and community engagement, as related to the visual arts. Students will use critical thinking and creative problem solving to explore art as a form of action through narrative, duration, tempo, intensity, social practice, and context.
  • ART 2022 - Construct
    This Foundations course, required of all BFA majors in Studio Art, introduces students to fundamental 3-D design. It does so through beginning explorations into materials and process, as well as tools and construction methods. Projects focus on 3-D formal applications of line, plane, form, and space, with investigations of positive/negative, interior/exterior, volume/mass, multiple/repetition, scale, color/surface, and texture.
  • ART 3490-001 Sculpture Special Topics - (Performance: Between Art & Life)
    This course investigates the practice of performance art and its origins. Pulling from a variety of disciplines, such as experimental theatre, improvisational studies, intuitive dance, meditation, body mechanics, relationalism, psychology, and traditional cultural practices, we develop skills that utilize the body as a tool for art making. We survey the unique history of performance art: including live performance, video, and sound.