Two Great Classes at SFAI

I am teaching two great courses at San Francisco Art Institute this summer: Waterworld and Visionary Spaces.

Check them out and sign up! Find my classes here.

Class: Waterworld

“This course will introduce traditional watercolor techniques… [and] offer a broad thematic observation of subject matter that lends them to expression through watercolor. Reflective surfaces, memories, travel diaries, natural environments, and unexpected circumstances are but a few of the topics that will be discussed and practiced in this class.”

Class: Visionary Spaces: Architectural Model-Making

“Imagine your dream environment and engage in hands-on model-making to design this visionary space. Practice techniques of special construction using found and recycled materials and incorporate self-made imagery to three-dimensional models. Students will examine how movement, vision, smell, memory, and imagination impact the navigation of architectural space.”

Teaching Philosophy

For me, a classroom defines a vital community, a laboratory or a social space. As a teacher I hope to guide the students towards a place of discovery and to provoke unaccustomed ways of perceiving; to offer resources that would enrich and inspire their curiosity and to point out contradictions and challenges as they reveal themselves in the process. I wish to stimulate experimentation and to create a learning space within which students can reexamine familiar and well-known forms and methods.

As a facilitator of methods, I encourage students to always search and research for information in both common and uncommon places – books, web, street corners, galleries, their homes, memories, fantasies, museums, sciences, new technologies, malls, etc. I try to assist them in channeling the information they find into their art practice, even in simple class assignments. Often creative activity begins in the most unusual places.

I hope that my technical and theoretical knowledge will provide a solid foundation for the students to build upon in unique ways. Through the interaction with students, I impart the experience of my life as an artist and teacher and challenge myself to reexamine my own assumptions and practices. I learn as I teach and I teach as I learn, in this way I keep the enthusiasm for exploration alive.

Communication is integral to art practice and critique. I invite written, pictorial, verbal, audio, video, or any other kind of discourse, incorporating new language and new structures for ways to discuss ideas and the process of making art. In the context of contemporary art world with fewer boundaries and multiple languages it is important to consider questions regarding the intended audience; display of artwork; political and cultural implications as well as artists’ working collaborations. I incorporate trips outside the classroom as well as visits by working artists, curators and/or critics to provide context which is current and reflective of the artistic community.

I structure my classes in a way so as to give the students an opportunity to learn about and experiment with a variety of forms of artistic expression. Understanding each student’s area of interest and background, their skills and intention, I help them develop a stronger sense of imagination, confidence in their personal ideas and a feeling of accomplishment.

Inspire. Stimulate. Motivate. Provoke. Guide. Channel. Direct. Facilitate. Transmit. Communicate. Respond. Collaborate. Experiment. Research. Reexamine. Invite. Accept. Recognize. Acknowledge. Connect. Understand.