Response to Chapter 1 of Teaching Artist's Handbook UPDATED

My Artistic Evolution and How it Influences My Curriculum and Teaching 

a.k.a 

What I Do As An Artist

My earliest art was functional: a Mother's Day gift, an illustration to a story I was writing, a self-portrait for school.

I think the first idea in my life was fantasy, frequently backed up by religion, nature, and family. This meant that for school I would write or draw or research about religion, nature, or family, but when I wanted to have fun I read or pretended or drew or wrote about fantasy. I would diagram a dragon's anatomy and then take copious notes from child biology books about insects, penguins, and Antarctica. I studied the Usbourne Childrens' Encylopedia.

In high school, fantasy faded into the grit of turn-of-century American novels like The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and The Grapes of Wrath and the modern ideas they introduced. I took myself more "seriously" and painted a series of cubist style paintings exploring my childhood memories, real and wished for (a red ball, piano keys, a shadowy figure that lived in our attic who we called the dark man, horses, a tree house, a brother).

Then as I senior I made a trip with my family to South Africa to visit my father's family. Using a point-and-shoot I collected a series of images from a drive through the shanty town and during our stay. These photographs combined with an experience I had earlier that school year when my German teacher led us in a service project to the inner city. We were working with a youth group from the Lutheran Church raking leaves and collecting litter. That day included a series of events that left a deep impression on me of the moral requirement that exists to see "us", not "them and us" but just "us". I created a series of paintings with the photos as my reference to explore how we are all entangles. Segregation is poison that infects the whole.

My work since then has mainly explored borders, segregation, and interaction. This focus in my art lead me into art education in order to work directly against educational segregation.

In my teaching and curriculum I want to address hard questions and help all "sides" see and ackhnowedge and treat eachother as human. Olivia Gude's article on her own exploration of this idea was highly encouraging that I chose the right field.

What kind of artist am I?
I feel that to say I am a visual artist might be limiting. I think that some of my work is best experienced when it is touched, smelt, or heard.

What is my favorite medium to work in?
Whatever I need to explore or answer the question. I love some kinds of intuitive drawing and painting. I love sculpture and have noticed that recently I think in the round.