Believe it or not, I had no interest in wanting to be a teacher at one point. I knew I wanted to be in the arts but I didn’t actually know what I wanted to do in the arts. Leaving high school, I figured if I went to an art school, it would be to my benefit. I thought that if I studied graphic design, I could fold that into a career in art and making money. Then I realized I didn’t like it or I didn’t necessarily like where I was. I was in a very corporate setting. I was looking for things that I could also do to make money and make art and teaching art seem to work, so that’s how I ended up in teaching art. Then, I got my masters in art education, and now I’m working towards other degrees in art education as well.
The experience was fine. I realized that my time at those corporate entities was not what I thought it was going to be. When you work for a large corporation like that, you end up having to do what is needed for the company, not necessarily as creative as a lot of places. Most recently I worked at Apple as a contractor and doing side work as a contractor is a little bit different than doing full time work, so I would do more freelance and contract work with large companies. But I like where I am now where I do smaller things than freelance things. It’s more creative, you get more creative control.
A lot of things drew me to Andover. I’ve never worked in a boarding environment before, so this is the first time I’ve worked in a boarding environment. In that regard, Andover has the ability to connect with people and different aspects of their life… The track team and also the dorm, those are things that I had never really experienced, so I wanted to try it out.
I try to do more hands-on things. A lot of times students are not comfortable with the frustration of exploring ambiguous ideas and concepts, but if any student is going to continue on in this field, they have to get more comfortable with it. They don’t have to be 100 percent comfortable with it, but they have to get more comfortable with it. I try to give some information, but allow students to problem solve on their own. I think that is something that in my high school and college experience I didn’t explore enough and I took it for granted because you’re always going to have a soft landing. You’re never going to just fail. You’re going to eventually… get a low grade or get a chance to revisit. But I think exploration and dealing with ambiguity is a challenge.
Right now, I’m working on a PhD which is not design based, but it is in the arts somewhat. I also have one freelance conference logo that I’m working on right now. But as you know, the time that is spent at this school is very limited. Your personal time is very limited, so I don’t work on a lot of projects. I used to work on more theatrical projects like I was saying and that was really exciting and creative, but it’s also very time consuming. Right now I’m just working on one freelance conference logo and that’s pretty much it, other than school.
The track team is a very large team and we get a lot of different personalities and get some diversity. I think that’s great and that’s beautiful. Particularly at Andover, you don’t get the opportunity to see outside of your direct circle too often. So, I love that about the track team, you know, with around 130 to 140 athletes. Everyone is doing a different thing with a different reason, and but we’re all in this together with a goal of improvement and motivation. I enjoy that and it is kind of a metaphor for life and a metaphor for my life.
A long, long time ago when I was teaching an architecture class, I taught a skyscraper project. Students had to draw out the skyscraper as well as build a skyscraper in whatever format. Most students used cardboard and paper and things like that, and I had one student that used plexiglass and built this really grand plexiglass skyscraper and then that has stuck with me for a long time. That was in 2009.
I like to walk. People see me often throughout Andover. I walk a lot, especially coming from New York. Walking is a skill set.
A lot of it has stayed with me. I have always said that I learned the most in my first two years at Showtime. I was an intern, so I wasn’t there full time at Showtime. But being in those kinds of settings you have to know how to do things quickly and on the fly, so you have to learn key commands very quickly. You have to learn how to use all of the tools that you have available to you. You have to know how to collaborate with others. You have to know how to take from what you’ve done in the past and move forward from that as opposed to starting over. I took all of that with me throughout all of my freelance career. I used that and I teach from that in graphic design, both the 300 and the 500 level. I think all of that experience was valuable and definitely more than what I learned in the classroom.
You know that changes. Obviously, your taste changes and what you like changes. I used to be a big fan of Keith Haring. Also [Wassily] Kandinsky’s works, [with] the circles. I don’t know if I have a single favorite. That’s hard, that’s like picking your favorite child.
