Although I was born and raised in DFW, I moved to New York in my 20s to chase down my childhood dream of an “Art Life.” I earned my MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College, City University of New York, in 2012. After graduating, the Chair of the Art Department invited me to stay on at Hunter as both undergraduate adjunct faculty as well as in an advisory/administrative capacity for the MFA Program. This was the realization of a lifelong goal, my path in the arts has always been orbiting towards and around education. My artwork has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and internationally. However, contributing to a community of learners and scholars is my greatest calling and measure of professional success. 

    Drawing is my favorite class to teach. Drawing is a universal language, a linga franca even pre-verbal children practice, and a language found spoken in our species pre-history. Drawing is not limited to mark-making: we draw straws, we draw conclusions, and sometimes we draw a blank. It’s an elastic verb; it’s an expansive noun. I’m less interested in a student acquiring the ability to draw with photographic precision than empowering them through visual agency: empowering them to better understand, to be better understood, and to better navigate an ever-increasingly hyper-visual world.

    I view my teaching philosophy like an edifice built on three central pillars: technical facility and mastery; participation in the world of ideas; and, student wellness and empowerment. I teach to nurture and grow bold critical thinkers, confident problem-solvers, resourceful lifelong learners, and well-furnished minds. I foster these values by building a community of learners founded in discourse and mutual respect. I model my curriculum as to capitalize on in-class, seminar-style, discourse. It’s a vaguely Socratic discourse guided by cultural lampposts from fine art, literature, history and theory: sources ranging from Caravaggio to Banksy, James Joyce to Louis L’Amour, Heraclitus to A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, the Nasher Sculpture Center to NorthPark Shopping Center, the Art Supply Store to the Dollar Store. In this way I hope to bring discovery and enrichment to everyone that participates in my class, regardless of their background, concentration, or ambition. 

    The intentionality behind every lesson-plan I write, every project I design, and every text I assign is to offer something that students recognize as both unique and individual to themselves, as well as common and unifying to all. Art possess the rare ability to validate one’s individual autonomy whilst simultaneously affirming their connection within a community, within a constituency. Art makes life better.