Art Workshops
Teaching Artist Pedagogical Statement
I believe art making is a roadmap to liberation. Art Making is a kind of alchemy, a chance to wield objects, materials, our bodies within space to amplify our interior worlds: our fantasies, dreams, memories, thoughts, and interests. I believe every human being is an artist, and my work as an educator is to serve as a guide to help others uncover their limitless creative potential and help build bridges.
Many people have been taught a limited view of what art should be, what is right and wrong. I work to deconstruct that binary, and give people the chance to see that everyone has access to the ability to be an artist, as long as they feel empowered to name and claim it. I work to give my students the chance to wield their internal magic wand, and create the world they imagine.
As an Art Educator, I believe every human who engages with the creative process is an artist, and it is my role to serve as a guide through that journey. I believe that the process of experimenting with material to discover along the way, both successes and failures allows for new pathways to think about and experience the world. The act of engaging in artistic creation serves as a vehicle for capturing emergent ideas and learning.
I teach art lessons by providing a set of techniques, use a mentor artist or a visual culture reference, and encourage connections to other subjects through the arts such as science and math. Storytelling is a big component of my lesson creations, and incorporation of connection and reflection through a socio-emotional learning lens. I provide a framework of goals and objectives that incorporate cognitive learning, emotional awareness, and technique, but do not ask students to replicate a sample. Through this process, students are able to learn and grow authentically through engagement with a creative process that is both structured and allows for free expression.
My pedagogy stems from the educational philosophers John Dewey, Eliot Eisner, and Olivia Gude. I am also informed by the trainings leading to certification I have done in Socio-Emotional Art Education, as well as Anti-Racist Art Education, and Culturally Sensitive Teaching.
Featured Past Workshops
Storytelling Through Shibori
“learning through experimentation…”
Shibori is an ancient Japanese art of binding and dyeing fabric. Students learn three different Shibori resist techniques from the tradition, and then use the imagery formed to engage in storytelling and memory.
On the Pre-K and Elementary level, students learn about the science of Indigo and Shibori dyeing, developing hypothesis and predictive reasoning to guess what kind of imagery will come from the resists, and then developing drawings from the dyed pieces.
On the Adult level, students explore experimental forms, process-based creations, and work through creating their own style. The finished pieces are meant to evoke storytelling and creative writing, based around memory and lived experience.
I’ve taught this workshop at the University Of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, The Creative Center at University Settlement, and in many schools Pre-K - 12th.
Art Parades
“embodied celebration as a work of art…”
I find the parade to be a collaborative, community-based performance art - art that is alive, part of the body, and part of an experience, rather than art to see on a wall or static in a room. Inspired by the parades of New Orleans, I’ve created custom-made parade workshops for children based around their current study of learning.
Through student-led musical instrument making, costume design, and sign making, the final “work of art” comes together as a parade moving through the school, to inspire joy and a new way to learn subject matter.
I’ve facilitated art parades through the Fleisher Arts Memorial, and in public schools Pre-K-5th grade
Zines and Comix
“dissemination of information to share your voice…”
I teach students how to make zines and other small books from free and affordable materials so that they could be easily reproduced and shared with others.
Community Mural Projects
“a mural is a document of the process of collaboration”
I have facilitated many community-led murals and quilt projects in communities in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New Orleans.
My mural designs are designed to enable every person to have equal access to their creative expression, highlight the work of the community, and provide a cohesive vision to bring everyone together.
Personal Space Drawings and Dances
“what does your space look and feel like?”
Students choreograph “personal space” dances to reflect the amount of safe space they needed, complete with gesture and emotion, using the principles of time, space, and energy to compose. Afterwards, they translate the pieces into abstract drawings on paper.