Artist Statement & Teaching Philosophy
My artistic process helps me bridges the gap between concrete and metaphysical, while my teaching practice allows me time to link the past, present and future as I work in impromptu ways. “Simultaneously reflective (recalling the past) and anticipatory (predicting the future), thoughts are integral for one's apprehension of an experience of time that includes more than a pattern of progress” (Richardson, 2011). These philosophical thoughts are only thoughts, until they are put to use by means of creating or teaching at which point their true value may appear allowing the practitioner to shift into new and unsuspecting roles.
The artistic process relinquishes the idea of time, leaving the creative process and subsequent materials as the tangible elements available for interpretations, exploration, discussion and consideration. “The artwork is no longer an end point but a simple moment in an infinite chain of contributions” (Bourriard, 2002, p.20). The artwork holds the potential energy needed to project the artists’ ideas in new directions. This is similar in teaching as well; the project is not an end point but the starting point for an unending range of questions, interpretations and investigations for further artwork. For me it is this uncertain transitional point of the process that held the greatest importance in my studio practice and now holds the greatest importance in my teaching process.
By placing value in the unknown I must trust that my knowledge and skills both artistically and educationally will lead me through the precariousness that the unknown future creates.
“Precariousness is at the center of a formal universe in which nothing is durable, everything is movement: the trajectory between two places is favored in relation to the place itself, and encounters are more important than individuals who compose them” (Bourriaud, 2007, p.49). In other words the journey is favored over the destination, because the destination is always changing.
These quotes, for me, reference the value in understanding that which cannot be seen, yet hold the greatest value. Thought process, rational and influences help propel the artist from one concept to the next, creating connections and affecting their work. These invisible aspects of the creative process act as the hub of the wheel or the hole of a door. It was the journey I took as an A/R/tographer (artist/ researcher/ teacher) that granted me access in seeing how this philosophy manifests in my studio practices and provided the door for its use in my classroom, helping me step over the threshold from art teacher to artist as educator.