Begin with something worth building
Everything I make starts simple. A single mushroom, a single form, drawn again and again in overlapping line until it holds, then brought into Blender to give it dimension, scale and a world to live in. I teach the same way.
A drawing can become a landscape. A shape can become a structure. The first idea matters because it gives me something to test. Its purpose is to open a direction I can follow, question and change.
Materials help me think
I work across drawing, paper, collage, digital design and three-dimensional construction. Moving between them changes the questions I can ask. A line can describe an edge on paper. In a model, that edge has thickness and casts a shadow. A choice that seemed settled becomes a new problem to investigate.
That range also changes how I see teaching. A learner may find an idea through a fold before they can explain it in a sentence. They may arrange scraps, move them, then discover what the arrangement communicates. I want the classroom to make those routes available.
Give the learner a decision
In Profile begins with a shadow outline, then gives the maker choices about paper, placement and meaning. The outline makes an entry point. It does not decide the portrait. A dry-fit arrangement gives the learner permission to change direction before glue makes the decision harder to reverse.
The same principle appears in sculpture. A join is tested, a form falls and a support changes. The maker learns something through the material. My role is to offer a useful demonstration, a safe tool and a question that helps them notice what happened.
Make the thinking visible
I want students to point to the work when they explain a choice. What changed when the piece moved? Where does the eye land? What does the material make possible? These questions connect intention with visible evidence.
An artist statement grows alongside the artwork. It can be spoken, dictated, labeled or written. Clarity matters because it helps a viewer understand a decision; sentence count and English fluency do not replace the artistic thinking being assessed.
A studio built on trust
Every student enters with something worth building. Sometimes it is a memory, sometimes a question, sometimes an interest that has not yet found a form. The work of teaching is to provide time, tools, references and relationships that let that idea develop.
I want brown and BIPOC learners to encounter artists whose work expands the possibilities they can imagine for themselves. I also want them to have the authority to make choices that do not copy an exemplar. The reference begins a conversation. The student makes the work.
That is why I treat curriculum development as an artistic practice. I build a sequence, watch how it behaves in a real room, listen to learners and revise. Ideation is making: an idea develops through the work we give it a chance to become.