Week 1: Educational Philosophy

This I believe…. Art is not an idea.  It is a means of understanding and expressing ideas.  I define art as an attempt to connect one human to another through the communication of a concept or emotion.  This is broad and allows space for many forms be they visual, auditory, or tactile, and even those which are yet to be explored.  Essentially art’s pursuit is human connection, appropriating new and increasingly refined forms, devices, and mediums of communication.  Much like language, we can refine the delivery, we can increase our vocabulary/arsenal of tools and techniques to achieve greater efficacy, but ultimately it is the content that is most valuable, the meaning that trumps form. What I value most in my own artwork and the work of my students is authenticity.  It is meaning more than beauty or novelty that I wish my students to attain.  To achieve this, I will need to know what is of importance to my students;  what it is that they value, that they fear, that they wish to understand.  I believe in seeing each child/student as a unique entity in possession of mental, physical, and spiritual capacities needing to be recognized and nurtured.  Art is such a powerful educational device because, by it’s very nature it calls upon  these faculties and cinches them together in one swift and graceful motion.  I know this to be true intuitively and I look forward to acquiring the skills and methods necessary to demonstrate it.