My Skill Set

 Visual arts is my most persistent pursuit, it being my core nature, sculpture in particular.  At this time, curriculum design is one of my particular interests.  I have found that much of what we know about art and the visual world is innate.   We have a visual aesthetic that is active from the time we are very young and we have knowledge about images and objects that can be recognized and developed through training. It is interesting that what holds true in terms of curriculum for the college student in the sculpture studio can also be understood by the young child, building towers of clay. The young child learning composition and color is preparing possibly for science and engineering.   

My studio school, Abovoagogo, was located  downtown on Seneca Street from 2010 to 2015. It was founded on the idea that serious visual arts training should be made available to young children and that this is the best time to begin learning these skills . 

I come to teaching from a clinical background. I am an Art Therapist,  specializing in early development,  using art-making as the context for relationships and communication as well as a means for assessment.  Additionally I  have worked in addictions and with  AIDS patients and  cancer patients in medical settings. The clinical orientation is  an important part of my skill set. 

As I moved away from the restrictions of the clinical dialogue towards situations labeled "teaching" , the implied roles for myself and my "clients" were more conducive to health.
In the studio we present enticements. Art is fun, magical and messy.   What we teach is techniques, process, composition, line color form, appropriate to age.   What is learned is self – expression, the confidence to take action on aesthetic choices, how to make something out of nothing.

Here are some recent projects:

For the Downtown Ithaca Children's Center, consulting   Question:  In what way can art become a modality for teaching.  Their objective was to have art become more central to the culture and function of the school? Consulting involved teacher training, curriculum development and classroom teaching. 

Yoga and Figure for A+ at BJM :   in collaboration with Marie Vitucci.  She is a pioneer for teaching yog and mindfullness in schools.    We designed a program that was both yoga and figure drawing for third-grade girls, to address issues of self-image, confidence and self-esteem. 

Drawing Like Crazy!  This is a program that arrives in a suitcase and has happened in many locations over the past 4 years.  Any room with floor space becomes a studio.  I teach an exhuberant brand of drawing, a serious weekly session of skills and practice for kids. Drawing is a language that can be mastered at a young age. 

Art Day at the Library, TCPL  preschool art studio.  It's ART for little ones and their families.   For the summer, it will be happening every week!   Mondays 1:30 - 3:00 , June 23rd until August 4th.  hats, printing, sculpture, painting, collage  

Tiny Town for Cayuga Nature Center 
Tiny Town is a childrens worksite for the construction of a village that sits in the gully by the rushing stream.  There is clay, mud, rocks, sand, branches, bark and water.   These are the materials.  Lets have the children consider a habitat for tiny occupants. They will take into accont the characteristics of the materials, the needs of a community and the shape of the landscape.   Tiny Town is a laboratory for architecture, landscape, gravity and the forces of water. 

Stick City for Cayuga Nature Center.   

Flight Club for Belle Sherman School 
with funding from Hope Foundation