Students entering an art department have many varying needs. Some are interested in gaining creative skills that will help facilitate, indirectly, non-art related careers. Others are hoping for an elective, that offers hands-on use of materials versus academic centered subjects. A few plan to follow a career path into the arts. Hopefully, all of these students will leave college with a heightened sensitivity to the arts.

Understanding the basics of drawing and design are necessary for students to grow in their artistic endeavors. Therefore, foundation studies are essential in providing the tools for students to develop. Framing the studio classes within a solid art historical curriculum is also important. Students should gain an understanding of the context for art making both through past art movements and the current cultural climate.

My primary resource for teaching art is a reflection upon my own journey, as an artist. Evolving an artistic direction requires skills such as focus, determination, and joy in the making. While attending college, students can initiate their long path towards developing a sophisticated visual vocabulary.

Within critiques, I promote an openness for other areas of the department to participate. As a result, a richer brew occurs in the discussion. An interdisciplinary approach is especially pertinent, in an age when so many art mediums are brought closer through technology. For example, printmaking, graphic design, digital arts, and photography are now highly intertwined. Other activities, such as museum/gallery excursions, visiting artists, and film/reading seminars can enrich the student's experience.

In closing, my criteria for a successful program is one in which the student leaves equipped to build an armature of ideas with a cohesive visual language. Underlying this language is a matrix defined by technical proficiency, critical research, and creative potential.

I am certified in the following areas:

Animation I: University of West England, Includes Flash CS3, Toon Boons, and Stop Motion Techniques.

Beginning Animation: Austin Film School. Emphasis on Flash CS3.

Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS, and In Design CS, 2006, Southwest School of Arts and Crafts, 8 Week Course, San Antonio, Texas.

Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3: 4 week courses, San Antonio College Continuing Education, 2008, San Antonio, Texas.

  In 2010, at Palo Alto College,  I am scheduled to teach Digital Drawing and Painting using Corel Paint. I was the first faculty member at San Antonio College to move the printmaking curriculum towards more use of digital applications, including photo-etching, silkscreen, and relief. In photo-etching, I use Image-On products. I teach a course at the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts on carborundum printing that involves photo-silkscreen processes. I am accustomed to advising students on obtaining images with proper resolutions for printmaking mediums. Additionally, I encourage students to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to plan color separations. Students have also used enlargers to project digital images onto wood for relief processes. In drawing, I utilize a digital camera as a cropping and zooming tool. My own art incorporates digital images either indirectly through silkscreen or directly as ink jet prints on cotton rag paper. I also have used video stills to create mixed media pieces incorporating traditional print mediums. I am presently working on a film shorts using traditional stop motion and Flash animation techniques. I also introduce students to contemporary artists like Terry Winters who incorporate digital processes into their prints. While at the Lower East Side Printshop in NY, I assisted in the printing of work by Glenn Ligon, Juan Sanchez, and Daniel Reiser, who were included in the 2001 Brooklyn Museum of Art show: Digital Printmaking Now, curated by Marilyn Kushner. I stay aware of trends in the use of digital applications especially within printmaking by attending shows like Poetical/Political, the International Print Triennial, 2007, at KUMA, in Tallinn, Estonia.