Department of Art & Art History

research

If I had to describe a quality that applies to the art that I like best, I’d use the word poetic. What do I mean by poetic? The dictionary defines it as “having an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expression” and that’s a fine beginning. However I also see it as a juxtaposition of economy and extravagance. Information, both visual and metaphorical, is reduced to only what is needed in order to open the work for interpretation. Along with this economy, however, the artist must imbue the work with richness and intensity. This can be performed with an explosion of ornamentation, form, marks, materials or even emptiness. The key is both revelation and mystery, an authenticity not burdened with elucidation. The desire to create this quality of expression imbues all of my studio production and serves my conceptual concerns. I am interested in exploring people’s wounds and desires and how those things shape individual personalities and relationships with others and the world. I am interested in the perverse and the redemptive, the forlorn and the transcendent the way that each person’s life is at once a comedy and a tragedy. I explore these issues through ideas about the body, language and narrative.

teaching

I view learning as a cooperative effort between instructor and student, I approach each class with flexibility and aim for responsiveness. My goal as I design my courses is to help our students develop in a number of ways as they progress from lower level to advanced coursework. First, I want them to acquire some basic skills, and more importantly understand the process of skill acquisition. Most contemporary artists learn how to use new processes as needed to work in a variety of media whatever is necessary to their specific vision. Secondly, they must learn the critical skills and language to evaluate and interpret artwork, both their own and that of others. Thirdly, they must learn about what is going on in the contemporary art world and learn professional practices that will help them forward their careers. The final, and I believe most important thing that these young artists must do is to discover their own artistic voice and learn to express it authentically.