Teaching Philosophy
By Ruth Reese
There is an uncanny power within artwork that can change the way we feel in our own minds, hearts and bodies. Meaningful work takes us straight into the essential moments of our human journeys. To create this kind of work, several branches of learning must be addressed: community, craft, culture and concept.
Community
My teaching philosophy begins by creating an atmosphere where students feel that their dreams are possible. From my own experience, community helps grow a level of confidence needed to believe in your own work. Social psychologists Chavis and McMillan put forth a theory about community that is widely accepted today:
Sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together. (McMillan, 1976)
Not only does a clay studio allow students to acheive their humanities requirement, and spur their own specific creative aspirations, but a successful ceramics studio is a shared community, where growing happens together. Investigations and achievements are interrelated, and a sense of belonging can often improve learning. I have found that discussions (instead straight lectures), studio potlucks, rotated assigned studio maintenance tasks, class collaborations and field trips together build community. Students feel at home and that’s when the ideas, the enthusiasm and trust in the process start to emerge.
Moreover, when I work on projects in the studio with students (outside of class time) they see struggle, perseverance and hopefully achievement. They know that they are not alone. Students also see a project unfold in real time. In a ceramics studio, we share tools, machinery, kilns, loading each other’s fragile projects. A sense of shared community gives students the foundation to be explore their strengths and vulnerabilities.
Craft
Students skills are supported by demos, slide lectures, critiques, journaling, sketching, building maquettes, project outlines, discussions and critiques. This helps students search out the questions that will ultimately guide their art-making trajectories.
Craft is connected to mindfulness. When makers slow down, we enjoy the process and “get into the zone.” Students learn more when instructors break down the process, taking their time to show the steps in between. One might think an artist is happiest when the projects are done. However, I have a belief that artists who stay committed to their practice (as a hobby or profession), find their joy in the making.
Wedging, a practice where the potter kneads the clay before throwing it on the wheel, is a full body process. It’s not just in the fingers and wrists, but in the arms and even the core muscles. I’ve found if I’m wedging clay for, say 10 bowls, the physicality and mental absorption of the process relieves me of distracting emotions (such as, for example, the unsettled frustrations of the day). In artmaking, there are many entrance points to mindfulness that lend integrity not only to the art object and but then, also, to one’s state of mind. We are crafting ourselves at the same time.
Teaching craft and building skill also builds confidence. This confidence leads to expression. When a musician memorizes and internalizes the structure of the piece, imagination and creativity flow more easily. At the same time, craft involves exploration and experimentation. There’s a system to acknowledging and incorporating unexpected miracles. The experience of “letting things be” builds upon itself. Trusting the material becomes an absolute. Control must be balanced with an open-ended respect of the medium for its own properties. After a while materials, process and compositions start telling you what to do! Craft involves listening.
Culture
Clay has a rich history and each student becomes part of its story as a main character. Students bring their own histories, identities, experiences, wisdom, goals and culture. This naturally informs their creative work. I welcome all the evolving aspects of diverse identities to the table.
In turn clay brings its own history to the conversation as well. Some projects might involve researching a historical method or cultural use of clay that informs the project at hand. I encourage students to locate themselves in art history and contemporary art. Clay in North America has a specific nuance to its focus aside from contemporary art. People in the clay community have shared and divergent goals. Acknowledgement of the self within the context of respecting another’s experience is vital for sharing overlapping cultures whether in clay or the classroom.
Concept
How do you encourage students to tap into their own voice and discover what they have longed to say? Some artists find their voice by doing. The activity of making leads to the next impulse to make. Their path is physical and intuitive. Others come with natures that seek. I find that young makers usually need project parameters, at first, which provide a framework for decision making and skill building. Usually as time progresses, students sense their direction. They find that it’s more fulfilling to spend time with a certain color, surface, form, process or motif. Frequently, this element is missing either within the culture at large (or in their own life) and they bring it into being. They are creating truth from absence. I especially enjoyed a student who had shared with the class that they had a medical heart condition. This student created abstract vessels with reconnecting tube forms. I couldn’t help but believe, this student was building vital (and visual) constructs of health.
While this paradigm works on the personal level, it also works on a political, societal level as well. Renowned artist Cindy Sherman ironically recreates cinematic tropes by using her camera like a mirror. She questions women’s self-acknowledgement of the stereotypes they participate in. Lacan’s mirror philosophy remarks on how we see ourselves through others’ eyes. Sherman’s work warns: be careful whose eyes you see yourself though.
If students choose to see their work through my eyes, their professor, they will see their creations in a hopeful and expectant light. As a professor, I have my student’s best interest at heart. At the same time, my gaze back shifts to the horizon, for it’s with high expectations and dreams of the future that we achieve.
By Ruth Reese
There is an uncanny power within artwork that can change the way we feel in our own minds, hearts and bodies. Meaningful work takes us straight into the essential moments of our human journeys. To create this kind of work, several branches of learning must be addressed: community, craft, culture and concept.
Community
My teaching philosophy begins by creating an atmosphere where students feel that their dreams are possible. From my own experience, community helps grow a level of confidence needed to believe in your own work. Social psychologists Chavis and McMillan put forth a theory about community that is widely accepted today:
Sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together. (McMillan, 1976)
Not only does a clay studio allow students to acheive their humanities requirement, and spur their own specific creative aspirations, but a successful ceramics studio is a shared community, where growing happens together. Investigations and achievements are interrelated, and a sense of belonging can often improve learning. I have found that discussions (instead straight lectures), studio potlucks, rotated assigned studio maintenance tasks, class collaborations and field trips together build community. Students feel at home and that’s when the ideas, the enthusiasm and trust in the process start to emerge.
Moreover, when I work on projects in the studio with students (outside of class time) they see struggle, perseverance and hopefully achievement. They know that they are not alone. Students also see a project unfold in real time. In a ceramics studio, we share tools, machinery, kilns, loading each other’s fragile projects. A sense of shared community gives students the foundation to be explore their strengths and vulnerabilities.
Craft
Students skills are supported by demos, slide lectures, critiques, journaling, sketching, building maquettes, project outlines, discussions and critiques. This helps students search out the questions that will ultimately guide their art-making trajectories.
Craft is connected to mindfulness. When makers slow down, we enjoy the process and “get into the zone.” Students learn more when instructors break down the process, taking their time to show the steps in between. One might think an artist is happiest when the projects are done. However, I have a belief that artists who stay committed to their practice (as a hobby or profession), find their joy in the making.
Wedging, a practice where the potter kneads the clay before throwing it on the wheel, is a full body process. It’s not just in the fingers and wrists, but in the arms and even the core muscles. I’ve found if I’m wedging clay for, say 10 bowls, the physicality and mental absorption of the process relieves me of distracting emotions (such as, for example, the unsettled frustrations of the day). In artmaking, there are many entrance points to mindfulness that lend integrity not only to the art object and but then, also, to one’s state of mind. We are crafting ourselves at the same time.
Teaching craft and building skill also builds confidence. This confidence leads to expression. When a musician memorizes and internalizes the structure of the piece, imagination and creativity flow more easily. At the same time, craft involves exploration and experimentation. There’s a system to acknowledging and incorporating unexpected miracles. The experience of “letting things be” builds upon itself. Trusting the material becomes an absolute. Control must be balanced with an open-ended respect of the medium for its own properties. After a while materials, process and compositions start telling you what to do! Craft involves listening.
Culture
Clay has a rich history and each student becomes part of its story as a main character. Students bring their own histories, identities, experiences, wisdom, goals and culture. This naturally informs their creative work. I welcome all the evolving aspects of diverse identities to the table.
In turn clay brings its own history to the conversation as well. Some projects might involve researching a historical method or cultural use of clay that informs the project at hand. I encourage students to locate themselves in art history and contemporary art. Clay in North America has a specific nuance to its focus aside from contemporary art. People in the clay community have shared and divergent goals. Acknowledgement of the self within the context of respecting another’s experience is vital for sharing overlapping cultures whether in clay or the classroom.
Concept
How do you encourage students to tap into their own voice and discover what they have longed to say? Some artists find their voice by doing. The activity of making leads to the next impulse to make. Their path is physical and intuitive. Others come with natures that seek. I find that young makers usually need project parameters, at first, which provide a framework for decision making and skill building. Usually as time progresses, students sense their direction. They find that it’s more fulfilling to spend time with a certain color, surface, form, process or motif. Frequently, this element is missing either within the culture at large (or in their own life) and they bring it into being. They are creating truth from absence. I especially enjoyed a student who had shared with the class that they had a medical heart condition. This student created abstract vessels with reconnecting tube forms. I couldn’t help but believe, this student was building vital (and visual) constructs of health.
While this paradigm works on the personal level, it also works on a political, societal level as well. Renowned artist Cindy Sherman ironically recreates cinematic tropes by using her camera like a mirror. She questions women’s self-acknowledgement of the stereotypes they participate in. Lacan’s mirror philosophy remarks on how we see ourselves through others’ eyes. Sherman’s work warns: be careful whose eyes you see yourself though.
If students choose to see their work through my eyes, their professor, they will see their creations in a hopeful and expectant light. As a professor, I have my student’s best interest at heart. At the same time, my gaze back shifts to the horizon, for it’s with high expectations and dreams of the future that we achieve.