Teaching Art

I am a teaching artist.

I make art with school kids and communities. Art trains us to observe and think creatively. In math and science, answers are definitively right or wrong, but art teaches us the nuance of judgement. NYC is the creative capital of the world. Yet hundreds of our public schools don’t have art programs. Teaching artists work with nonprofits like Creative Art Works, ProjectArt, and Thrive Collective to fill some of the gap. Expression is a fundamental part of human nature. We are visual beings. We are communicators. We are made for art.

With older students, I engage as a muralist. Many people dread drawing. But everyone has ideas—ideas of who they are, observations about the world, thoughts they want to share. I tell students to make chicken scratch drawings with stick figures, diagrams with written notes. I gather their concepts and stitch them into a mural design. The most magical point is when students recognize their concepts in the mural. What a thrill to understand you have something worth sharing with the rest of the world. How meaningful it is to feel seen. Below are some of the walls we have painted together. Learn details about some of the works here in my mural section.

With younger students I explore a variety of mediums. We do watercolor experiments, where students explore color mixing and create textures using salt, or toothbrushes, straws, crayons. They use resulting swatches to make collages or dioramas. Puppets are the most popular project. Clay and painting are not far behind. Not to mention printmaking. I often introduce concepts—themes or techniques—with picture books. Art is both expression and play. It is meant to be fun. Pleasure keeps us open to new ideas and new ideas keep us growing.