The Artist / Teacher

Many years ago, after moving to Colorado, I realized that on a day to day basis, I spent more time on teaching in the studio than anything else. At the same time I happened to watch a video: “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” a documentary revealing a sushi master and his relentless dedication to perfecting his craft. Jiro said when he started out, he believed that to achieve success, he had to fall in love with his work and so he set about a daily routine that involved an almost superhuman focus on his objective. This concept was not particularly new to me, yet it arrived at just the right time to clarify my own destiny.

When I first considered a profession, I was clear: I will be an artist. Yet at that time, what did I know? Nothing really except that I liked drawing and I saw other people like me, forging a life in variations of that enjoyment of drawing. And so it went, but then after taking night courses at a nearby art college, and ten years of doing free lance illustration in NY City, I considered the possibility of teaching. So through some good luck, I became teacher at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota Florida. I vowed that I would always be an artist so I became an Artist / Educator. Teaching would help keep the lights on in the studio, pay for the basics for the family, and I could continue to pursue my artistic interests as well.

When I managed a move to Colorado, things got very busy: I enrolled in Syracuse to complete a Masters program, bought a new house, flew to China and adopted two little girls, began teaching at a new college, chairing the new Illustration department. Somewhat overwhelmed, I decided to just be an educator. And considering Jiro, I fell in love with teaching.

I realized too, that teaching had always provided wonderful benefits beyond my initial considerations. In the first instance, I found a huge population of art soul mates, which provided an endless stream of people who spoke my language. Moreover, there, in the studios of learning, I was also learning. I was no master at the beginning of my teaching career but the dynamics of the artschool classroom fueled my understanding in surprising ways.

There was, up until Jiro, the sense of selling out. Keeping those studio lights on became more important than actually working at the easel in the studio. But then, it occurred to me that everyday I entered the class, I had to both speak and draw convincingly in order to reach closer into the education of my students. Embodied in the demonstrations and in the resulting drawings, paintings and conversations, I found my way back to being an artist. It seems legitimate to me that teaching contains a daily opportunity for real art.

Art produced in the service of teaching is more than lecturing at the front of the room. In fact, it really means sitting close to students, hearing their stories and occasionally offering advice that transforms the awkward imbalance of the “student / teacher”relationship into a true working relationship between colleagues. To make this happen, I embraced the need for high level demonstrations.

What that means is different based on reading the room of varied souls and hearing their stories. My own interest was keeping my spirit in the game, and eventually I was able to think of my art school efforts as the work of an artist.