I take seriously the prowess of artists as ontological architects; and simultaneously, artworks as heuristic practices of worlding, particularly when they participate with other disciplines and are lived into Earthly systems. This philosophy guides my teaching practice and my priorities as an instructor are to support students in the recognition of their power, gain clarity about their beliefs and ideas, and experiment and play with how those ideas are made into physical/material artworks.
I invite students to rethink their education and art practices not as a human endeavor, but as a shared project by the whole of Earth. As a teacher and facilitator, I encourage students to consider how their art practices engage and care for this Earth-making project, and how they are active agents of environmental and social change. I remind students to trust themselves, their ideas, and to embrace their autonomy, while simultaneously reminding them that we all exist together within a vast network where autonomous experiences are always imbricated and either share, distribute, or extract knowledge. I highlight the potentiality of research-based art practices that are not just conceptually concerned with the “environment” but are embedded within its multi-temporal processes. I emphasize sensitivity to complexities – social, cultural, political, ecological, and personal – to facilitate the development of conscious, complex, eco-systematic art practitioners.
I am interested in guiding artistic practices that are materially low impact, investigative into fields of new, biomaterial research, and thoughtfully engage within human and more-than-human communities. To facilitate these pathways, I provide a spectrum of course material that grounds theory and practice. This includes a foundational, yet critical, lens into environmental and bio art history, relational aesthetics and social practice, foundations of ecological principles, and contemporary art. Course reading and guest lectures center Traditional Ecological Knowledge, scholarship and activist strategies by and for People of Color, queer and trans theory, and non-canonized artists, researchers, and scholars. These varying trajectories are synthesized into multi-layered, multi-disciplinary projects and art-based research.
As an environmental art educator, I empower students to be critical and mindful contributors to the transdisciplinary field of Art & Ecology and assist this process through encouragement, collaboration, and embodied learning. These methodologies have been practiced through strategies such as creating audio “soundwalks” for students, to listen to as they walk outside in field exploration and attune them into embodied arts of noticing. Other methodologies include delivering lectures in the form of guided meditations, allowing students to relax and receive information on a subconscious level. Fundamental to my teaching practice, however, is to meet students where they are. As such, I consider place and adapt my pedagogy to work within it.. This privileges students’ experiences and their unique means of storytelling which, as I can attest, fosters inclusive learning spaces to gather, share, and experience each other, celebrating what’s possible.