Teaching Philosophy
Stephen
Robison
My aim is to direct students toward problem solving through technical
challenges, creative research and critical discourse. Since there is rarely only
one solution, I do not adhere to any single standard of style or content in my
teaching. Rather, I strive to provide a wide base of information to encourage
students to become free thinkers and find their own way of expressing ideas
within the media. In my slide show lectures, I focus on a diverse use of
content and expression. I encourage
ceramics majors to delve into other disciplines that may assist them in their
own visual voice. Disciplines inside and outside the art and design world are
important to begin this path. Students are also encouraged to do research by visiting
artists' studios, museums, exhibitions, libraries attend visiting artist
lectures and workshops, conferences and other organized field trips. For instance, I find an unmeasurable value in
taking a group of students to an NCECA conference or to show them a local
patron’s collection or take them on a field trip to a gallery or museum to
discuss a particular artist’s or culture’s use of the media.
Teaching ceramics requires structure and a strong curriculum with clarity for goals
and objectives, with assignments that include technical and conceptual challenges
and personal writing activities. Detailed assignment sheets and grading rubrics
have been helpful to give my students a full understanding of the possibilities
for each assignment. My beginning through intermediate assignments sometimes
seem ridged but I open up quite a bit of freedom for interpretation so that the
final outcome of most assignments is widely varied. I have found students will
welcome that freedom and also many times rise to the challenge. I use frequent detailed demonstrations in
class and I create videos for the reiteration of the demonstrations. I also use
power point lectures that have images from the historic and contemporary record
of specific objects for each assignment. In addition, I include kiln building
and glaze calculation projects, health and safety lectures on equipment and
materials and reading assignments on philosophy and esthetics. I often use pieces
from my own collection to reinforce the object-ness
of many directions in the field. Holding an object is especially helpful when
it comes to tactile experience and the understanding of physical balance in utilitarian
ceramics. I demonstrate every technique within hand building, mold making and
throwing and relate these techniques to both contemporary and historical clay
work. This opens up avenues to work with abstraction, anatomical,
architectural, natural form and utilitarian concepts. It also allows students
the individual freedom to fully express themselves in both the sculptural and utilitarian
aspects of ceramics. My students are taught the technical skills and given the
information necessary to form a foundation from which to make decisions about
concept and technique. In an article titled “Teaching After the End,” in the
Fall 2005 issue of Art Journal, Daniel Joseph Martinez had been talking with
David Levi Strauss about the continuing relevance of Joseph Beuys. He said that
Beuys did not say, “‘learn how to cut a piece of wood first.’ He said, ‘have an
idea first.’ Once you’ve got an idea, the rest is simple.” I feel with all the
skill in the world you certainly can become excellent at the crafting of an
object; but without a strong concept you cannot craft an excellent piece of
art. Good craft is not always a part of
good art. The idea of the piece,
however, is not always the starting point. And some very important parts of
teaching that really are not simple
are the techniques, technical skill often becomes a major part of most good art. Through the execution of
certain skills or techniques, a student can also develop an idea or concept. Therefore,
I believe that teaching students technical skills can be a springboard for them
to develop their ideas. When they learn how to manipulate a material, they can
then understand what can be done with that material. Within this philosophy, a
work ethic can also be instilled and a student can learn that nothing is more
beneficial to the growth of their work than the actual act of working with
clay.
I
expose my students to what has been done with clay throughout history along
with the vast numbers of contemporary artists in the field. Newer artists on the scene like Roberto Lugo and
more established artists like Theaster Gates both make great work that speaks
about social justice issues and issues of race. The work of artists like Marilyn
Levine, Richard Shaw, Sylvia Hyman and other trompe l’oeil artists expand
students’ minds to the possibilities and understanding of the media’s responsive
nature. Ceramic work that expresses important topics on LGBT issues as seen in Gerda
Wegener’s (a Danish artist work from the 1920’s,) and contemporary ceramic
artists’ work like that of Léopold L. Foulem and Mark
Burns, or emerging talent like Wesley Harvey or strong feminist work like Judy
Chicago’s Dinner Party instillation, all open doorways to ideas for
undergraduate and graduate students.
The astounding gamut of utilitarian ceramics around the world
along with what has been accomplished and is being done presently with site
specific work and installation work, figurative work and design work are all
components of my teaching. Bauhaus designers
like Walter Gropius and Danish designers like Mette Duedahl, Eva Zeisel, and Ettore
Sottsass all compel students, who find interest in that direction, to embrace
strong design elements. When students are exposed to the full scope of ceramics,
they can develop ideas in any direction because they realize there is unlimited
potential with the media from scale to surface to color to content. These are directions
I coax my students toward to find ideas. I stress the most important questions
they need to ask themselves when making a piece: Why am I creating it? What is
the proposed final outcome of the piece? As they gain more understanding of the history and zeitgeist in
the field, a major fire is often lit and students become engrossed in the field
and hunger for more. This exposure to the incredible work in the field, along
with my dedication to diversity in issues revolving around content, helps me
generate an engaging and welcoming atmosphere in the studio.
Regular sessions encouraging critical dialog about art, craft, content,
philosophy, history and current issues help students to create their own
conceptual basis. Students must learn how to write an artist statement and resume
in addition to learning how to document their work. Advanced and graduate students
must write and give presentations on contemporary artists that help them to contextualize
their work and express their aesthetic and conceptual concerns in the written
and spoken word. They are also expected to have goals set for entering shows, applying
for grants and getting exposure to their work outside of academia.
I
also address professional options. Students are challenged to set goals during
discussions about what they want to do with their degree. These topics start to
enter my lectures around the beginning of the students’ second year. I help
them determine what they need to be prepared for graduate school applications
or other options such as residencies, apprenticeships, gallery management and
non-profit employment opportunities that can further aid in the evolution of
their work. I also help them put together a clean, well-read job application. I
work with mock interviews so they get a sense of the questions that might be
asked of them. It may be inadvisable for students to leave graduate school and immediately
enter the realm of teaching, but I still mentor pedagogical skills with my
graduate students. I think the experience of being an artist at a residency
program might be more valuable to the advancement of their work. They also may
be able to gain that average of two years of teaching outside of graduate
school that most applications require as a minimum qualification. This kind of
mentoring along with my dedication to each student’s development as an artist,
demonstrates my genuine concern for the future of each individual. I do not,
however, have any sort of idealist notion that each individual student is
driven enough to make it as a practitioner of the arts within the field of
education or in the professional art world.
The
example of an almost feverish work ethic that I invest in my own research is at
times contagious. I talk about the need to have a strong work ethic in anything
students wish to achieve. It is my responsibility to keep up on my own research
as it pertains to my obsession with ceramics and this research can also be a
possible avenue that helps me direct students down their own road. The research
and production of my own work and a constant show record, along with setting an
example with my work ethic, are also definitely major teaching tools. Students
need to know that a strong work ethic is essential to being seriously dedicated
to their studio practice. If I get several students out of each class that
discover the internal drive and dedication that it takes to excel in ceramics,
then I consider that class to be a success.
Additionally, if I can make a slight difference in the way each
individual student sees the world and views or understands art, I also deem the
course to be successful. One major objective in my teaching is to aid in the
development of critical thinking abilities with each and every student. This is
a lofty goal but I strive for it.
Another
of my goals as an educator is to be a conduit of information for students to
tap. I welcome students to use me for their professional aspirations long after
they graduate. In this I have been able to
create many long-lasting friendships and add to my peer group in the field. Some
successful former students in the field I had the great opportunity to teach
include:
Adam
Welch, lecturer at Princeton and the director of Greenwich House Pottery in
NYC, was a graduate student whom I worked with at VCU. http://www.greenwichhouse.org/staff-and-faculty/adam-welch
Jessica
Knapp, editor at Ceramics Monthly, was a special student I worked with at VCU.
Matthew
Armbrust, an active artist, musician and member of the Spartan Art Project was
and MFA student at CWU.
Chase
Grover was an outstanding graduate student at CWU. His art was focused
in
the catalog and on the poster for the Makers,
Mentors & Milestones at the NCECA exhibition at the Nelson Atkins
Museum in Kansas City.
Seth
Charles was another fantastic graduate student at CWU. He is presently teaching
at State College of Florida and is a Resident Artist at the Morean Center for the
Arts in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Two
exceptional undergraduate students from CWU whom I mentored to go to graduate
school in ceramics are Daniel Donovan, a full-time art teacher at Idyllwild
Arts in CA and Lisa Soranaka, who
adjuncts in Ceramics at Yakima Valley Community College.
There
are so many more former students that went on to graduate school and are
professionals in the field that I am honored to have been a part of their
education. I show examples of their past and present work on my website.
Presently
I have three emerging talents as MFA
students at CWU. Drew Liedtke and John Giesin are two graduate students getting
ready for their thesis exhibitions this spring. Aveline Layne will be finishing
her MFA in spring ‘19. All three have made great strides in their professional
development.
Professional
development is a key aspect of in my goals as a graduate faculty member and was
a major focus of mine as the Graduate Coordinator at CWU. Teaching graduate students is richly
rewarding because the students also become future colleagues. They become peers,
both in the field and as they gain insight in pedagogical practice and they
also become peers in teaching. Of course, as their professor, I keep a healthy
distinction between the two, but I really feel like we are mentoring new
colleagues. Mentorship for all my students is rewarding, but MFA and BFA
students who wish to go on to receive their terminal degree are the two most
rewarding aspects of teaching to me. That is not to say that BA and BFA
students who are not as energized to are not as important to me as a professor.
They are equally important and I work just as hard helping them with their
individual goals. I do, however, push all of my students to take their
coursework seriously. Teaching in general is about never giving up on the worst
student in class as well as challenging the very best in class. Oftentimes I
have seen the worst student, with a few metaphorical kicks in the butt, become
one of the best students. Something I learned from one of my teaching mentors
was that you need to give them enough rope to pull themselves out of the mud
they are stuck in.
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