Statements of Practice

Teaching Statement

Through my education, I didn’t just develop skills, I didn’t just develop the ability to learn, but I developed confidence. Michelle Obama

I believe in teaching the whole student by recognizing the wealth of experience in each individual.

Each student should be encouraged to reflect on their own identities and incorporate their unique outlook into each project or challenge that they are given. Students need to feel secure, in a safe space, to fully anchor themselves in their own experiences and use those to empathize with others. This safe space is created by developing a classroom culture of listening compassionately, giving constructive feedback, and allowing for the humor and playfulness which breaks down the barriers between student and instructor. Rather than transmitting knowledge to students like water is absorbed by a sponge, students learn through experimentation with new technologies and new ideas in order to build meaning for themselves. As a librarian, I combine information literacy with design and technical instruction in order to allow students to develop skills which apply wherever their dreams might take them.

Though I continuously update and refine my teaching methods, my unchanging objective is for students to have the confidence to initiate their own projects and experiment with solving the problems that they see in the world around them.

Artist Statement

I am inspired by nature. Our world is both messy and structured at the same time. The interesting thing, for me, lies in the juxtaposition of the asymmetrical and the symmetrical, the wild and the tame.

I am inspired by children; the way they talk about themselves and the worlds they create. I am influenced books of art projects for children. These books encourage me to make my inner world visible in a free and light-hearted way. When I make my works, I seek to replicate the carefree way that children create.

I am inspired by aging. With every year that passes, I am able to spend less time thinking about the things that are unimportant and focus more on the building blocks of a happy and fulfilled life. For me, these include the simple joys of family life, creating a comfortable and playful home, and the ongoing practice of self expression.

For most of my life, I’ve been a perfectionist and that has limited my ability to be creative. I’ve written, drawn, and painted so many pieces which ended up in the trash, never seen by anyone. My approach is a deliberate shift away from that, and I am now sharing works regardless of the “mistakes” that I see in them, allowing imperfections to remain as part of the finished work.