Program Director. Educator. Artist. Consultant
My job is to help individuals and groups realize their full potential through the power of creative thinking, observation, visualization, dialogue, and art-making. I have over 25 years of experience working passionately in a variety of roles. With each position, I engage the belief that art is a powerful tool that communicates difficult subjects, challenges ideas and beliefs, bridges gaps, gives a voice to the voiceless, and creates community. I work hard to demystify the art world and reinforce the notions that art is for everyone and is a crucial and vital part of our humanity. The foundation of my career began with my own art practice and I am so fortunate to be able to share my knowledge, learn from others, and facilitate growth and a shared experience through art.
Management
I approach leadership with the attitude that collaboration is an important part of creating a communicative, respectful and nurturing environment. Art observation and art making can be a vulnerable experience and it is crucial that my staff, clients, students and collaborators feel safe and empowered. I work closely with my staff of professional artists, creatives and thinkers to provide the most dynamic and valuable arts educational programming to diverse groups. I have cultivated a decades long relationship with community spaces, arts organizations and institutions to bring programming and educational opportunities out of the confines of academia and directly to our communities and neighborhoods. It is important to think outside the box and I am a firm believer in creating cultural wealth that defies boundaries and is accessible and engaging to as many people as possible.
Consulting
As a consultant I listen carefully to the vision of my clients and utilize my expertise to help strategize and realize goals across short and long term timelines. No vision is too big or small and my job is to help clients create enriching and dynamic arts programming at every level from pop-ups, to workshops, to long term instututional arts education programming. I bring valuable expertise in forming new projects as well as bringing a fresh take to long-standing programs that may be looking for a re-invention or additional offerings. My experience helps organizations and individuals budget, staff, schedule and implement dynamic creative programming that is functional and fantastic.
Instruction
As an instructor, it is paramount to let my knowledge be an encyclopedia rather than a manual. My goal is to help students realize their own creative visions and to foster an abundance of enthusiasm and experimentation. Independent of institutional resources, I have worked to help students envision a success born from ideas, confidence, collaboration and invention. I have learned to recontextualize what it means to be an artist, a teacher, a student…Not only are we are malleable and resilient in an ever-changing Bay Area, but the antiquated notion of the lonely artist simply doesn’t apply to the outspoken and thoughtful youth of today. I encourage public engagement that is deeply grounded in a very deep understanding of local arts, history, and culture.
Artist
I break things down into their inherent qualities in order to build something new out of them. Inspired/motivated by both material and meaning, I reconfigure/thread together disparate items/concepts. Using common materials, I load and recontextualize materials to create new paradigms of content and meaning using the fragments/shards of our society. Utilizing the materiality of such items as insulation, pins, reflective items and various synthetic cloths, I transform them into things beautiful, aesthetic and possibly even sublime. I work both intuitively and conceptually—oftentimes together to hold the proverbial mirror up—reflecting our pathos and pains, our triumphs and tribulations, our flights of fancies and our failings in order to produce poignant, witty and stimulating objects.
