I love teaching, as it re-awakens my passion for disseminating information about art. Teaching can be a very connective experience, and it gives me great pleasure to see anyone grow in their confidence in expressing themselves. The catch-22 about teaching is that creating art is not merely about having a handle on technique. Yes, techniques are important. They are the tools we use to express ourselves visually. But it’s having a connection to our personal vision that’s most important, and that’s a very difficult thing to teach. To some extent, we can learn it from example. I give my students a lot of examples of what other artists are doing, in terms of both subject matter and technique, which I hope might be inspiring to their own works. I’ve posted many articles on my blog related to various art inspirations.

I give specific assignments related to using colors, surface techniques, image transfers, etc… but it’s also a matter of giving the students a place to create where they feel encouragement, gentle direction, and the immersion of being with others who are also creating, which becomes a large part of the learning experience. I think that artists need a combination of experiences which include the isolation of working alone, the creative atmosphere of learning from others, as well as a number of other life experiences that provide the ideas that feed their work. In my personal work, I think of creating art as a "dreaming meditation", as I follow where my subconscious stirrings lead me. My interest in art began with an interest in dreams. Eventually, this evolved into dreaming as I painted.