About The Artist

In early 1975, I was teaching my first college level art course.  A few weeks into the semester, I came up with ways of teaching very different from the way I had been taught.  I wanted to give assignment that would encourage students to access their deep creativity.  I was terrified.  I knew that, if the assignments I designed did not have that result, I might be seen as too “out there” and lose my job. Happily, my way of teaching was a success.  Each student’s work became stronger.  I taught all of my subsequent courses using variants of those early assignments, plus many more that I brought to my teaching over the years.  I was gratified when the Chair of the Fine Arts Department of Florida International University told me that he had noticed that students’ work became stronger after taking any one of my courses.  He told me that their work became stronger and more accomplished in their chosen medium—and, most importantly, that they did not imitate my work.  I was very grateful for this feedback, letting me know I was on the right track. 

At the time, My courses were called Drawing, Painting, 2D Design, and Fibre Sculpture. When I moved to San Francisco, and was able to name and design the courses I taught, I called my signature course “Art as a Sacred Process”. My syllabi included the many original assignments I had designed, and began with something like the following statement: 

In the word “ineffable”, the English language admits it own limitations.  This word bespeaks an entire realm of experience that is, by definition, beyond words.  Our desire to invoke this ineffable realm calls forth the language of art, the colorful, shapely language of the mythic imagination. Our artful Wise Hands can access and express profound mythic consciousness.