Final Reflective Practice Portfolio (Introduction)

The Application of Layered Realities in a Digital Art Curriculum:

Exploring D’Artopia and Creative Collaboration

"You can't just give someone a creativity injection. You have to create an environment for curiosity and a way to encourage people and get the best out of them." - Sir Ken Robinson

I was an architect. During my Sophomore year of high school, I job-shadowed a friends father. He was an architect and I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. Two hours of hanging out in his studio convinced me that I had found my calling. I was all in. Design, creativity, drawing, building, problem-solving: it was everything I wanted. I was an architect.

Five years later and I am on a study abroad tour with my History of Architecture professor. I had seen some of the most important, most beautiful, and most amazing buildings that the world can offer. Architecture Heaven. We had already been to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France and were now in Bilbao, Spain. The Bilbao Guggenheim is an immaculate work of architecture by Frank Gehry, a huge, sweeping, metal building that marries the curves of the river and the rigidness of the surrounding city. I am immersed in architecture and it is wonderful. Suddenly, I find something that changed everything.

I found myself in a room towards the back of the building completely re-inventing who I thought I was going to become. In that room, in the Bilbao Guggenheim, was an art exhibit done by Spanish 2nd graders. The room was smallish but it was full of works of art; artwork that most people only walk through to get to the Richard Serra exhibit in the next room. These second graders had created something that was hanging in the same building as Basquiat. They had a view of Maman by Louise Bourgeois. The best part was, they were just as important.

I had debated being a teacher before. I told my French teacher in high school that she had inspired me to teach, and then promptly decided to be an architect. Now, it had just slapped me in the face. This is how I am going to change the world. I am not cut out to sit at a computer for 80 hours a week drawing red lines so that someday when I’m 70 I can become the next Philip Johnson. I am a teacher. I knew it when I talked to Madam Brown. I want to inspire the next generation to hang work in the Guggenheim. Whether it is origami by a 7 year old or massive works of art that bring people to tears, this is where I need to be.

Of course, such a radical change in thought is not something to be taken lightly, so like a typical undergrad student I took this epiphany, stuck it in my pocket, and continued the course because that is what is expected of me. I graduated with a degree in architecture and even though it set me back a couple years before I could teach, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I know I came out with a much different and more unique perspective on art and architecture for it. Architecture became part of who I am as a teacher.

There have been many important moments for me in my path as a teacher. My Bilboa moment was the first big one in what I hope to be a life full of them. I have found lots of good theorists, thinkers, mentors, and friends that have helped define who I am as a teacher and continue to shape me into the educator I will become. I discovered Deleuze in a class with Sydney Walker a couple summers ago and it shattered my ideas on thought and meanings behind thought. I discovered Ken Robinson while wandering the internet and structures of schools suddenly looked stupid while ideas of creativity loomed large. I was taken under the wing of Patti Bode during my return to undergrad work at Ohio State and was given confidence and a voice. I got to meet and talk to Olivia Gude about my digital art program at the Ohio Art Educators Association conference and changed my ideas for the coming semester. I’ve met countless amazing teachers through classes, OAEA, NAEA, and various other art education groups. Each one inspiring me to think differently, reflect, and work in great ways.

One of the biggest things that shape my view of art education is my view on creativity. I believe that as art educators our role is one of more a facilitator or cultivator of ideas than as a generator of ideas. I think it is important to provide structure to a student that allows for diversions and rabbit trails. We should be encouraging students to make a project their own instead of forcing them into the mold of our own ideas. We should be providing students with a way to process their ideas and life rather than making sure their barns are red and the sky is blue. I have been working with some choice based education in my curriculum and I love the flexibility it offers me and my students.

I am always trying to find ways to become a better teacher. I don’t want to become a teacher that looks back over the last 20 years and realizes that they haven’t changed much. My goal as a teacher and as a student is to make progress. I want to continue moving forward as a teacher, as a student, and as a person. The basis for this research comes out of my desire to create progress in my classroom. I started my research because I was looking for ways to make my classroom run smoother and more efficiently.

I love being an art teacher and I am excited that I am not done “becoming” an art teacher. I have so much more to learn, understand, and explore. I don’t want to ever be content with what I am as an educator. I enjoy the reflection and the manipulation of who I am and can be. I am interested in how research can push my pedagogy and the effectiveness of my teaching. I love the fact that I get to change the world one student at a time. I can’t wait to provide a Bilbao moment to as many of my students as I can. I am an art teacher.