I am an artist and an art educator; I help students create art with which they are pleased.

            I do not produce artists. Artists are born with the need to express themselves ingrained upon their soul. The knowledge of artistic elements and design principles will not make anyone an artist. At best they will be an acceptable copyist.  If one is driven to create, the ignorance of those principles and elements are but a minor handicap because the true artist will discover and devise their own methods and rules to satisfy that need to express what is within them.

            I believe it is a sin to attempt to mold an artist into one’s image. I see many artists given the “benefits” of an education at certain institutes of art only to emerge as practitioner of that school’s style. A place of higher learning in the studio arts must allow, nay encourage, the freedom of thought and expression to blossom and concentrate on assisting with whatever skills may be needed to bring those concepts to reality.

            Any act of creation is a difficult voyage. An educator should ease the passage, offer encouragement, suggest improvements, point out pitfalls, and offer understanding from the viewpoint of one who has made similar journeys using the same media.