I am a teaching artist. I have been living out this identity since I was awarded teaching assistantships for my years of graduate study as an MFA candidate. The insecurity I felt in this role lasted into my mid-thirties, and I remember the shift. This is when I began to feel that I was able to teach from an authentic place, with generosity and without fear.
I share this story often, as my students share with me their feelings of being an “imposter” as an artist. Each one of us possesses a unique and valuable way to contribute to the world through participating in the arts. Learning skills and being an artist are different things. Being an artist, claiming that identity, is an inside job.
As a life-long learner, I have come to understand that my teaching style has always been that of a facilitator for the ideas of my students. My relationship to each learner is both learning centered, and learner centered, the Socratic circle or Harkness approach informed by my liberal arts foundation. I am successful at creating a safe space for students to share personal narratives from which to develop their own individual and authentic voices, honoring with inclusion the diversity of voices which enriches the experience for all.
I am trained in the classical approach to the traditional disciplines of painting and drawing. Increasingly the silos which define the boundaries of artistic disciplines and praxis are fluid. I am equally as at home in an observational drawing classroom as I am guiding advanced students in interdisciplinary practice.
President, Board of Directors, ConneXion Artist Run Centre.
Studio Head, Drawing and Painting. New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.
Interdisciplinary work with a focus on language use and contemporary communication platforms.