above: teaching at Sacré Coeur School in 2024, at Odyssey Clayworks in 2019 (left) and The Drawing Center in 2018
I’m available lead workshops and guest lecture on ceramic sculpture and/or handbuilding in Melbourne. I’m also open to discussing workshop ideas around themes in drawing and art history suited to my areas of expertise. I hold an MFA in Fine Arts and MS in Art History from the Pratt Institute. Currently, I teach part-time at Northcote Pottery, Bisque Studios, and The Art Room.
Read on to learn more about my experience and values. Or click here for a full CV.
Students at Sacré-Coeur high school in a workshop I led in early 2024
My knowledge of ceramics runs deep, encompassing techniques of glazing and firing, the chemistry of clay and glazes, methods of wheel-throwing and hand-building and figurative sculpture. Having myself spent years applying this knowledge within the context of an artistic practice, I am keen on situating lessons in technique within activities that invite students to discover what Flannery O’Connor called the habits of art. My goal is to help students cultivate artistic practices that are personally meaningful, original, sustainable and sensitive to the realities of their communities and the greater world.
My technical and artistic expertise is coupled with a background in art history and theory, rooted in my time studying and apprenticing at the Leo Marchutz School of Painitng and Drawing in Aix-en-Provence, France. I wrote my master’s thesis contextualizing the work of artist Stanley Rosen within the activities of other ceramicists, painters and sculptors in his orbit in the mid-20th century — a project which, among other things, afforded me an understanding of what exactly sets ceramic sculpture apart from other mediums. I’m equipped to lecture on 20th and 21st century ceramic sculpture and to facilitate workshops that integrate lectures with theory/history with related exercises.
above: works by my ceramic students at Clayhouse Brooklyn, all of whom had little to no experience in hand-building before taking a class with me.
Painting and Drawing
My drawing practice is rooted in a perceptual study of the visible world, a fancy way of saying that I work almost exclusively from what I see, “en plein air.” This practice, along with my teaching philosophy, owes much to my time as a student/apprentice at the Marchutz School of Fine Arts in Cezanne’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence, France. The school combined painting and drawing from life with the critical (discussion-based) and creative (with copywork) study of works of art. The development of students’ visions was facilitated by a curriculum of texts that amounted to a philosophy both of craft and criticism, helping students delve into the potential meaning of properties like light, color and drawing and to consider how we might judge works of art. As an “alumni fellow” at the Marchutz School in 2014-15, I helped facilitate seminar discussions and met with the university students one-on-one to discuss their progress. In the MFA program at the Pratt Institute as well as as an intern at The Drawing Center Museum, I was exposed to an array of different painting and drawing practices, expanding my knowledge of the medium’s possibilities.
above: student work by students ages 8-9 from activities I led via Zoom with ProjectArt
Teaching children ages 4-11 at Goose Grease House for the Arts and later with ProjectArt in 2021-22, I developed other methods for teaching painting and drawing beyond working from life, something that many young kids are not yet equipped to do. While I began my teaching residency with Project Art creating lessons inspired by well-known artists and stylistic moments in world history, much as I’d done at Goose Grease House, I eventually adapted many activities from Waldorf (Steiner) School pedagogy (specifically from the book “Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools”) which provides a model for explore color, form and composition, sometimes abstractly, sometimes inspired in some cases by myths/legends and the natural world. Teaching in 2021-22 at the Brooklyn Waldorf School I learned, among other things, the value of introducing different concepts at appropriate moments in students’ personal development.
While geared toward children, many of the Waldorf School exercises particularly for the upper grades I may incorporate into future introductory or intermediate drawing/painting classes for adults. Some of them recall the abstract charcoal excercises Georgia O’Keefe did early in her career influenced by the philosophy of Pratt Institute professor Arthur Wesley Dow.
Art History and Museum Education for Youth
Images of a book handmade by an 8 year old from Goose Grease House’s Japanese Woodblock Print Summer Camp. I planned the theme and co-led the camp.
In addition to my experience teaching studio art, I have led art activities in conjunction with lessons on historic world cultures to foster cultural and geographic awareness, whether in the context of a museum (at The Drawing Center in 2018) or after-school program (at Goose Grease House for the Arts 2020-21). In linking my art activities to lessons on artists and/or cultural movements I aim to familiarize students with how different people have seen the world and/or to help them develop a sense of their own cultural heritages while nurturing their capacities for original expression.
The following instructional art videos I created for children at Goose Grease House of the Arts in Brooklyn inspired by artifacts and artworks from cultures past. Use the password “portfolio” to watch.
Persian Miniature Painting: Art History and Art Activity
The Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (exploring symmetry): Art History and Art Activity
Japonisme: Art History and Art Activity
Color in Greek Statues: Art History and Art Activity
above: 6 year old students’ symmetry paintings inspired by the Chinese Funeral Banner of Lad