Teaching Statement


I have been teaching part time for over 33 years. I started working on my art when I was three. I knew it would be life-long. I thought and thought about what I wanted to share with you today.  I finally decided it had something to do with turtles. The image of a slow moving turtle coming out of it’s shell---quiet, and persevering----possessing a unique pattern on it’s back, and leaving a trail, “unfolded” in my mind’s eye. The path it takes, an unending source of information to respond to. The beauty it sees, and the mysteries it solves as objects come closer, must be similar to the process of art. 

For fifty-nine years I have been “walking” that road.  My early luck was the encounters along the way with teachers who encouraged. I worked with people who were wonderful artists themselves. In child programs at O.C.U., the Tucson Art Center, the Art Center here, and with my private teacher during junior high and high school.  Then, undergraduate and graduate school with teachers I still respect and admire. My favorites had a common bond in their definition of art. They used the idea that art was about uniqueness of vision. It is with this past, and the fact that I’ve walked a long way down the road, that I share information about art with children. I choose the first, second, and third graders as my favorites. I want to encourage their natural inclination of self-expression. I want them to understand the beauty in their uniqueness.  I want them to be turtles that keep moving on an art road of appreciation and involvement. I think there is a great importance in using common materials and making the magic come from within. I teach drawing, using your imagination, and the importance of art being an ongoing experience. Art, as an activity for daily use, a means to develop ideas. Art, where self-confidence and creativity can carry over to every area. I encourage.