The importance of creative development for the sake of humanity compels my teaching philosophy. I believe my scope as an artist/researcher/educator should address a diverse range of social concepts such as politics and social/environmental justice; cultural concepts such as, spirituality, ethnicity, and gender; and holistic and interdisciplinary instructional methods and strategies as approaches imperative for creative expression and generating provocative and intriguing art/life work. In addition to this conceptual importance in learning, I believe that material and concept, process and product, and curiosity and knowing are all intricately intertwined and must be considered equally. Weaving together these parts optimizes learning and renders the experience whole, relevant and meaningful to a life in balance with one's environment. The ability to transform the medium or issue with the inherent potential of one's own hands, heart and mind into anything one can imagine fuels my hunger as an artist and educator -- to see what else can be done. Such a holistic experience involves diverse learning outcomes -- the mastery of technique, a competent understanding of design and process, an awareness of self in relation to community and the natural world, and a desire and capacity to participate as an empowered citizen - all contributing to the satisfaction of an aesthetic and ecstatic experience that lingers long in one's memory. Suzi Gablik said, "ecstatic experience puts us in touch with the soul of the world and deepens our sense that we live in the midst of a cosmic mystery".

In order to reawaken our shared sense of the whole it is necessary to excavate the layers of the experiential landscape and search for truth, alternatives and greater meaning. Social, historical, gendered, and environmental layers contribute to rich and varied sites of inquiry. The commodification of nature, women, history, people, and places are distressing burdens on my psyche and our collective unconscious. Through a shared investigation that seeks to respond to the complexity, contradictions, the beauty and the scars that we have rendered upon the landscape, students and teachers, together as learners we can make connections between people, places, images, resources, and history. These opportunities and sites for dialogue and collaboration are critical components to a holistic approach to navigating the intricacies of our shared and vulnerable existence. My sincere love, concern and interest in all that complicates and enriches our lives compels me to teach, share and perpetually seek out the experiences and perspectives of others to inform a curriculum design in pursuit of unifying experiences.

Art education as I understand it is an educational avenue that offers a pragmatic and more effective metaphorical vehicle to achieve a harmonious union between the compatible roles of artist/researcher and teacher. Howard Gardner said it well. "Art education is too important to be left to any one group, even that group designated as 'art educators.' Rather, art education needs to be a cooperative enterprise involving artists, teachers, administrators, researchers, and the students themselves". I have often felt the abject lack of personal investment, active participation and genuine interest of art faculty for students' learning and for the shared opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. Rather, I have observed and been exposed to wholly disconnected and exclusive approaches to teaching. As an inexperienced teacher I have felt a similar disconnect between the aspects of my person and profession and have struggled with the tension created and sometimes promoted by the institution. I have sought and continue to seek a more unified evolution beyond the institution's superficially disparate tasks of art/research/teaching. I have experienced moments that I can only describe as clarity, when these interconnected aspects of living have slowed their clashing contradictions and hectic pace to find peaceful spaces and places to connect and function as a whole.

As crucial as the personal pursuit of these shared spaces between creating, making and learning are, it is equally important to nurture institutional spaces where they can be explored. The inherent politics of promoting evolution, change and acceptance in the traditional institutional framework should not be underestimated. Though this traditional orthodoxy can be stifling and difficult to resist, its dichotomous position to more cooperative, collective approaches is an opportunity to construct multitudinous bridges between more holistic learning, living and teaching methods and contrasting schools of thought. It is my contention and my pursued objective that educational theory need not supersede practice. Becoming more inclusive in philosophy and action promotes broadening of positions, an interweaving that creates negotiated spaces amid the ambiguity and fluidity of established notions of theory and practice.

Rita Irwin encourages concrete definitions to be questioned and expanded, liberating the bound positions of teaching and artmaking and creating spaces where active investigation of these positions, of searching, "understanding, appreciating, and representing the world" amalgamate and render a wholly aesthetic experience. As categories combine, spaces in between become opportunities to seek meaning, reflect on our understandings of our lived experiences and integrate them into our learning/teaching, seeking and making experience. Therefore, I advocate a holistic approach to educational reform achieved through interdisciplinary curriculum design and constructivist learning strategies.