Student Showcase

 

University of Tennessee in Knoxville 2022-2024

3/3 Intro to Pottery, Intro to Ceramic Sculpture, Intermediate and Advanced Pottery and Ceramic Sculpture, Figuration in Space (Special Studies), Capstone & Manages student workers.

Teaching young people who are becoming themselves is an honor and an incredible privilege. With the opportunity to teach Art Majors, Non-Majors, and Graduate Students, we are able to cross pollinate ideas and worlds, each contributing to the chorus of thought and personal expression. In these courses, my focus is not only craft but concept and raw vulnerability as the student experience evolves.

Teaching Philosophy

When I don’t have the answer, we can learn together. Collaboratively learning with my students is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching (aside from that aha moment when something clicks for them). To teach is to learn and to be a student of life is a gift. I was gifted clay in 2004 when it became my favorite form of therapy, my best friend, and my safe/ brave space.  I have been teaching ceramics for 10 years to people 3-93 and my understanding of the material lives mostly in where it is. The ceramics studio is a sacred one, to be met with reverence and experimentation, for  the boundaries to be pressed and avenues opened, unpredictably. When  we remain open to the unknown outcome of play and dialogue, we can collectively access a world yet to be seen. 

Clay has the capacity to: facilitate lessons of resilience,  teaching  us  to learn from loss, to push the limits of experimentation and the scope of what is possible. We each carry the capacity to change what exists around us, both to physically alter matter, but to connect, to hear what particles as old as time have to say. When we ask permission from a material, we give permission to ourselves to be vulnerable in failing and all of the learning, unlearning and healing which draws near behind. Clay has been a dear friend of mine and therapeutic practice through all of the most awkward, painful and joyous moments, used to reflect and persist. For this to be the case, a studio should be clean enough to find rhythm and make space for those with whom we share space. It should be accessible and welcoming, non-judgemental and warm. Only then can we excavate that which weighs us down. Creative zones are the catalyst for unheard voices and such interactive work can be that welcome permission which teaches students about their own agency. Students are in the progress of figuring out who they are and we have the immense opportunity to help them practice their voices. In this way, teaching is a continuously improvised process of space building.

I teach with the same tenderness clay asks of me, listening to each person as an individual and providing the appropriate support. This space we share is wondrously entangled and clay facilitates a kind of care for the world, firm enough to change it, but gentle enough to listen.

 

Armory Art Center 2021-22

Wheel-Throwing and Altering , Soda Firing, Figure Sculpture

I teach Advanced courses in altering wheel thrown forms; using darting, folding, scoring and nontraditional methods. Ceramic chemistry includes chapters on clay, slip, underglaze, and glaze making as well as application techniques. Figure sculpture utilizes solid and hollow building around mainly paper armatures to construct human and nonhuman living organisms

 

University of Notre Dame- Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence “Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award”

April  2021,  Notre Dame, IN.

University of Notre Dame 2018-2021

Ceramics 1

Slab Building Architecture, Figure Sculpture, and Wheel throwing

Students sample techniques for figure sculpting including the use of armatures and solid building techniques. The emphasis will be on gesture and expression. Students should consider anatomy while constructing but not be limited by proportions… Meaning, students' style and emotive quality is as important to celebrate. As we will be observing the live model to understand movement, students are encouraged to pair with another student for this project. 

Students translate an architectural era or specific building into clay. Starting with the general form and work toward detail. The goal is to build a free standing structure using leather hard clay. Pay attention to the quality of lines and curves, structural integrity and creativity in execution. 

Students learn new surface decorating techniques, including Mishima and stamp making during this project and should utilize them to create a sense of story.

 

Penguin Foot Pottery 2014-2018

Intro to Wheel-Throwing, Advanced Wheel-Throwing and Altering, Ceramic Chemistry, BYOB pottery, and a variety of workshops

Advanced course in altering wheel thrown forms, using darting, slip and scoring.

Advanced course in developing clay bodies, slips, underglaze, terra sigilatta, and glazes. Students in ceramic chemistry gain a working knowledge of common ceramic mineralogy through melt tests, progression and triaxle blends, shrink and porosity testing, and lasting layering these materials to develop a unique body of work.

 

Marwen 2015-19 seasonally

Urban Gardening

I teach middle and high school students at Marwen Students learn about tending through the ceramic process and gardening. In this class you can create your own vegetable garden by building pots and planters! Explore hand building and wheel throwing techniques to create your own one-of-a-kind ceramics. Choose a seed to put in your pot and learn how to grow and care for it.

For generous resources on teaching young people, visit the Verve