MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY / GUIDING PRINCIPLES
as an individual i seek to understand; as an artist i seek to convey what i have come to understand; as a thinker i construct to seek so that i can understand. my own artistic work is the formulated result of the conceptual understanding of “things”. my love of wisdom, my love for exploring the multitude of meanings in life, is something innate within me and of which drives me toward temporal and greater fulfillment. my artistic expressions are not as much about the surface aesthetic, as they are about the deeper empirical meaning acquired in my life chapters thus far. they are the pictorial forms of my experiences and understanding of feelings such as love, change, desire, isolation, of ideas such as morality, beauty, truth, equality, freedom and of the soft space between what is known and what is still unknown.
“like a well written novel, a life lived well is a life sought well in meaning. poetry exists around us, everywhere - but we cannot understand life through a poetic lens rich in beauty, imperfection and asymmetry if we do not possess the simple ardor for seeking. (…) MY PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHING IS THAT I DO NOT AIM TO INSTRUCT - I AM TO GUIDE.” - bianca
from the eye of my observation, there is a general contemporary impatience with the ‘art of seeking’ due to the need to feel compelled to do something else more worthy of ones time; the gap between organic curiosity and dutiful find is growing more disparate amongst people today - especially students within higher education. self interest has darkened curiosity amongst the many in formalized settings, so that the few desire seeking the light outside/inside themselves by way of their own volition to pursue; rather, they do so out of obligation because they are instructed to. informally, light is obtained with accommodating digital accessibility for whenever he/she feels the desire to become illuminated - the result of this ease in answer accessibility is the adoption of the sentiment that a quick conclusion is more satisfactory than the derivatives themselves and that the goal is of more value than the process itself.
one universal truth about living, is that life is the composure of a long story - and like a well written novel, a life lived well is a life sought well in meaning. poetry exists around us, everywhere - but we cannot understand life through a poetic lens rich in beauty, imperfection and asymmetry if we do not possess the simple ardor for seeking. my pedagogy for teaching is in alignment with my valuing of the same approach, of emphasizing the art of seeking to understand. my own desire in being placed within the career of professorship, is to re-familiarize students with what curiosity truly is and highlight how quintessential it is to being in this life; to illustrate what the poetic lens is and how to leverage it as one through which he/she may use as a tool daily for understanding and formulating new ideas; to enliven in their consciousness how to continually be a student of life when the formalized educational setting does not exist; to spark the match and ignite the flame within each young mind so to instill the embodiment of a transformative mind-set which does not simply answer questions, but asks them; to provide a safe, accepting and non-judgmental space wherein he/she can feel liberated, not fearful, in asking such questions without reserve.
the most culturally influential humans of tomorrow who define the standard for the next new age wave of development and advances in this century, are the ones who will not possess a herd mentality; they are the ones historically and indefinitely whom possess a mentality which carries within this very poetical way of thinking about the future. creativity is the life force of all which is - and my drive as being a professor of art, with respect to the institution, is to melt the pre-conditioned molds of what exists conventionally in young minds so to allow for the fluidity of them to be able to re-create unconventional form from the basis of pure substance. it is through the application of meaning that the substance will shape into their own beautiful works of art.
to “teach” can be defined in two ways, both arriving at the same idea but suggesting a difference in meaning: first, to inform by way of instruction; second, to inform by way of guidance. as similar as they may read, the formalities differ insofar as the path toward the attainment of knowledge… the former implies a sense of dogmatism wherein the student is a passive vessel for absorbing information, while the latter implies a larger sense of free will wherein the student is an active participant in choosing which way to move. i do not aim to instruct - i aim to guide. in life, the most profound curve in the prospect of learning happens in the journey of self-discovery. knowledge is linked with our feeling of pride, of achievement, of reward - and what we feel an intimate connection to (like the pride felt in our capability and fortitude to discover such knowledge independently), we assign meaning to… this is primarily because such knowledge was found organically, not fed.
there is a lasting development within self that happens when information is ‘stumbled upon’ versus indoctrinated - the result is an increase of confidence to be more self-reliant, to think differently instead of alike and to then desire with one’s own volition the continual act of seeking to find the light. this is the very scope of how my influence as a professor of art will not only inspire but will nurture the young minds of today in higher education. by posing deeper questions with open ends and allowing students to finish the sentence, i am able to prompt self reflection and guide the findings thereof through various creative studio expressions. in my perspective, success lies at the intersection of the dichotomy wherein the freedom to discover is guided by rational thought. my approach to guiding students versus instructing them, is kin to the way signs on the road inform, yet suggest, which path to take; they provide foresight into the direction of where one is headed and the conditions of the road(s) ahead and leave it to the free will of the driver to choose whether or not/how to proceed. similar to life, the signs are always there - but it’s up to us to read them, then interpret and apply meaning to them in context of their relevance.