Education exists to raise up citizens who are ready to live well in our world. This would be easier to do if we could agree on what kind of people this world needs more of; leaders, workers, consumers, individuals? Teachers of any subject will explore this question in their own way, but I believe that as an Art teacher I have the freedom to answer it directly. We need more students who deeply value good.

That is my definition of Art: unnecessary human good. There is necessary good: food, shelter, communication, companionship (our basic needs). And then there is Art: decorating a cake, designing a dream house, writing an allegory, singing in a band. To teach Art is to teach students that this kind of good matters.

We need a world that values unnecessary good because only a world that values unnecessary good can value good at all. Empathy begins when we acknowledge that there is something worthwhile beyond our own survival.

With this in mind, art means the most when it is not isolated from the “real world.” I want to create an art classroom that encourages students to value all of Art, not just traditional fine art. I want them to value the good they can bring to the table (even if they can’t draw or paint or sculpt). With this in mind, I can think of three skills I hope to foster: creative idea having, improvisational doing, and cross-disciplinary being.

Creativity is the ability to think in terms other than those given to you. Everyone is creative because nobody is a robot (sorry Siri). Still, schools tend to isolate creativity to specific areas while I want to draw it out. Improvisation is the ability to do something without planning beforehand. I do my best work when improvising but society likes to have rigid plans. Art should find a middle ground, approaching intentional tasks with spontaneity and a willingness to fail. Being cross-disciplinary allows us to live in a multiverse of intersecting worlds. Art connects science, history, language, religion, and mathematics. Art class is an opportunity to explore the unnecessary good of necessary subjects. Better yet, it is a chance to explore topics that do not fit into typical studies (cryptids, game design, dog breeding, trucking - who knows what might come up?).

These three skills have changed my life for the better (both in my artmaking and in general). When interacting with kids who are not creative, who can’t improvise, or who don’t believe their interests matter, I see a need. I design my lessons with these goals in mind.

Calling Art the “unnecessary good” is an oxymoron, a contradiction. We need all the good we can get. Art may not be the good we need to survive, to make a living, to perpetuate our society. Still, Art is the good that we need to make these things worthwhile. What a shame that we have to teach it; what a blessing for me.

A favorite activity of mine, collaborative drawings encourage student artists to add something to the scene. I then go back and complete the mural so that everyone’s contributions tie together.

In 2021, I ran a comic workshop with high school students. We brainstormed things that are easy to draw, hard to draw, and impossible to draw (along with several lines of potential dialogue). The students then were challenged to incorporate these elements into personal comics.

What better way to start the year than by making classroom expectations CLEAR. To help with this, we had middle school students create illustrated posters reminding everyone of a rule of their choice. I discussed the creative process with them and was excited to see the expressive cartoons students were able to make in two short classes.

Using an automatic paper-cutter, I provided elementary students with animal parts so that they could create their own Fantasy Hybrid Creatures in the form of shadow puppets.

A warm, snowy day might just be an invitation to go outside and make mini-snowmen. It’s a low-risk introduction to impermanent sculpture, I would love to see more upper-grade kids take on the challenge of snowcraft.

Maybe someday. For now I will settle for snowman collages created with 1st and 2nd graders on the day of a 2-hour delay.

I made this playful jab at modern Sculpture for one of my college classes. Art like this is at its best when the artists and the audience are willing to acknowledge how silly it all is. An emperor with no clothes isn’t a problem at the swimming hole.

Straw, Sticks, Bricks? These classic architecture elements combine to make what I like to call Piggy-punk. Here students learned basic architecture terms and were encouraged to design a house of their own inspired by the three little pigs. After discussing the value of taking time to do things well, students were able to test the quality of their work with our very own big bad wolf (blow dryer), and see this principle played out in the classroom.

The modern world is burdensome. Our children each carry the world on their shoulders. There is a lot to worry about when you have a front row see to all the world’s problems. The only alternative seems to be blind entertainment.

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As a Teacher it is my mission to be a Christopher. The legendary saint carried a single child across a river but discovered the little one was carrying the weight of the whole world. Bringing the child safely over the river was his way of serving the Lord.

In a river of meaningless content, a good teacher can lift us above the noise and get us across. Beauty and joy are both good for their own sake. I do not want to teach my students mere information, rather I hope to impart ways of thinking like artists.

Artists don’t just see their world, they shape it; they look at it from different angles; they share it with others. Their world is not a burden, it becomes a gift to share.

There’s a lot more that I know how to make and teach but have not yet had the chance to lead any students in. Here you can see examples of some entry level printmaking, collage, etching, photo editing, carving, and more.

For this project, students created their own blueprints based on the work of cartoonist Rube Goldberg. With the help of pre-drawn components and their own imaginations, students were able to trace cause and effect in hilarious ways to complete simple tasks of their own choosing.

Lay a plastic sheet over a printed image, trace it with magic markers, spray the sheet with a mist bottle, and set a piece of cloth on top. It’s a simple introduction to printmaking as the markers bleed into the cloth and transfer the image. At a Catholic Elementary school it makes for a fun project based on the Shroud of Turin (the classic game: Savior or Sasquatch)

Teaching a figure drawing unit to high schoolers in their mandatory studio art class the challenge becomes teaching specific practices in a way that’s fun enough to inspire true engagement. Two activities that went well: drawing classmates as they pose for you, and adding contour lines to define muscles and clothing on a skeletal frame. Despite the range range of skills, it was fun to see each student’s vision of what details were important to identify their characters.

I am signed on for summer 2024 to be craft director at Deerfoot Lodge. Check back here in September for examples of woodburning, metal tooling, pottery, leather work, and more…

Digital Art is an important part of the art world today, but it’s hard to do on a Chromebook with a track-pad mouse and nothing more than Google’s generic drawing software.

Hard, but not impossible. I got to teach a lesson on digital art in which students decorated black and white photos of celebrities. While I was not able to access any student samples, I’ve included my modest attempt at J.R.R. Tolkien (and some cool reptiles for good measure).

Teaching is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. Jesus taught that it would be better to have a millstone tied to your neck and then tossed into the sea, than to trip up a child. With this in mind, there are few jobs more high-risk than teaching.

Even without this religious motivation, the role we play in the lives of children can hardly be understated. A forgettable act of kindness may change the course of a life, a thoughtless act of impatience or anger may linger in a mind for years. This high calling should not be taken lightly, nor should it be feared. Perfect love casts out all fear.

Every child is sure to stumble. May a teacher always be there to pick them up again.

Mythology meets paleontology when you consider the idea that ancient people, upon discovering dinosaur bones, were likely inspired to think up dragons. Any image of a dinosaur is a work of art because we are using our imaginations to think about what they looked like. For this project, students will be tracing dinosaur skeletons but designing their own dragons overtop.