As a practitioner of both fine arts and graphic design, I study and teach the principles of art practice and design, including a hands-on approach to teaching that emphasizes craftsmanship and creating art with traditional tools and media. Along with the practice of integrating real-world problems into the curriculum, I encourage students to keep sketchbooks. Sketchbooks are for research, the practice of daily drawing and sketching, and to understand visual problem solving. I integrate graphic design and the practice of making fine art in my studio as a professional and in the classroom curriculum.
My method of teaching emphasizes a handcrafted approach. Beginning students learn by using traditional tools and methods of design – inking, cutting and crafting each design problem. As students work, they are encouraged in an atmosphere that is both challenging and supportive, Activities of thinking, looking, and dosing occur interdependently on all design problems. Critique is an integral part of my classroom as students review, evaluate, and re-do each assignment before arriving at a final product.
Students take ownership of the learning process as they each create a textbook in the form of a spiral bound sketch book that will later become a reference manual, and I give the students an opportunity to lean by teaching as they work together in groups on design problems. Students are encouraged to lean and understand the vocabulary of the artist and designer as they practice both oral and written communication related to each design problem.
My role, in a design classroom, is both to teach and guide as I art direct each student’s work and share my own professional experiences as an artist for example and for the encouragement to their growth.
