I currently have a Temporary Teaching Certificate for Art K-12 for the State of Florida. I have extensive experience working in my field of expertise and have continued to excel in my chosen area of study from college until the present. I am ALWAYS interested in fulfilling my desire to pass along my extensive knowledge and experience to a new generation of artists and hope to inspire them as I have been inspired throughout my career.

I am a working professional artist who has been successful my entire career making my living doing what I love. In that way I am very fortunate and have a lot of WORKING creative experience that I feel I can share with the next generation of students. One of the things that my education seemed to lack was the actual application of Art and creativity in a real world setting. I loved Art class, I just did not understand, even after graduating college, how to apply this creativity to a job or career. After graduating I had to find my own path, and I did! I have worked for many prestigious companies as an artist including six years at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, California.

I have taught students ranging in ages from 6 to 22 years old, and adults as well. Although never a full time teacher I feel that I have a unique perspective on what it is to be an artist in today's world, and make art and creativity a part of daily life. But most of all, I know how to make projects fun and engaging. My experience teaching at the YMCA Camp in Hawaii allowed me the opportunity to teach kids of all ages, intellect, handicap and nationalities, and use what small budget and few resources we had available to create fun projects that the kids talked about their entire stay with us. We used found objects that we gathered on hikes around the campus to create beaded necklaces that they could wear with pride, we created kites out of common plastic trash bags that flew over the camp for weeks, and of course we made souvenir T-shirts that we screen printed ourselves on their favorite t-shirts.

I am an advocate of recycling and have a strong ethic regarding using what already exists around the house, the yard or thrift store to turn what some feel is trash, to treasure. This form of creativity I think inspires to change perspective and allows young artists to look at the world around them with a new eye. It also teaches them conservation and moral responsibility. Something we truly need this generation to carry forward.

I have a variety of skills to bring to the classroom: drawing, painting, color theory/wheel, photography, sculpture, ceramics, collage, weaving/textiles, sewing, jewelry, graphic design, computer artwork and paste up, as well as Art History . I like to choose certain famous artists as a theme for each class to focus on and talk about while working on similar projects that are relative to that artists work, so that art history is not simply a lecture but a hands-on experience that sticks.

As far as teaching experience goes, as I said I worked at a YMCA Camp as an art counselor, as well as conducted two week long classes periodically throughout my career with various community centers. I have always taught private students and can give you references for those, and just recently I worked with The Conni Gordon Arts Foundation in Miami doing various drawing and painting seminars for charity events. We just recently did an all day seminar at the Miami Beach Convention Center for the 2010 Ability Explosion, where we simulated blind drawing for groups of 150 Elementary schoolers to not only teach them drawing techniques but tolerance for people with disabilities. We had the students wear a blindfold and follow direction to draw on their pads of paper, with the enthusiastic reveal being fun and exciting! My passion is art and teaching and this is an opportunity I would cherish. There are a lot of very skilled artists out of work here in Florida, and I know I have a lot of competition for a teaching position such as this. I want you to know that there would be no one who would work as hard or as dedicated as I would. I have wanted to switch back to teaching for almost 10 years now as I have always loved it. For many reasons this was not a wise choice for me, but as I have gotten older and life has taken its many turns I have realized the importance of doing what I love most and enjoying every day. I love teaching. It is something that makes me happy and I know I can inspire students to love art as much as I do. There is nothing like showing someone that they can be creative when they thought they could not!

My art instruction fees vary depending on what type of instruction desired, materials and frequency of classes. Please contact me for more information.