Diaspora

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Diaspora:
a scattered population with a common origin.

Rebecca plays with her 3 year old daughter. Rebecca made the tutu for her earlier that day in anticipation of my visit.

After nineteen years of making art with K-12 students, I've interacted with over 9,000 kids. I don't remember all of their names, but I remember many moments. It's intense and wonderful work. I wonder what it meant for my students? If I really want to know the efficacy of my teaching, I'd never know through a test. I'd have to do it the hard way. So I'm seeking out 20-30 former students, to talk to them about what art is and means in their daily lives now. They are literally scattered around the world, doing everything from curating art shows, to raising children, to delivering pizza.

Keenan looks for a good shot in the Aurora Illinois train station. He's saving money to move to Colorado.

This year I enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Art in NYC. I am exploring the interrelationships between creating artistic and educational experiences. I thought a great place to start would be to track down and see what happened to former students, and talk to them about if and how they use what they learned. I tested the waters by creating a Facebook group. It grew to 213 members! I asked them to make a video stating their name, age, location, major life activity, and what class they took with me. I spliced some of the results together to create the video above.
These aren't even all of the replies! So many are excited about having me visit and document their lives now, at college, at work, pursuing creative careers or parenting. I was flabbergasted when Nick actually wrote a song about what he remembered from photo class!

Rebecca and her daughter playing in the empty lot near their apartment.

The final product will be a gallery show in Brooklyn a year from now (location TBA), with 20 or more large format prints, and (at least) a vanity pressing of books to accompany the exhibition, and a website with the photos and stories of the students' thoughts via transcripts or videos of our conversations.

Vincent and his sister Jocelyn at their father's home. Vincent grows hydroponic tomatoes, and works as a software engineer, while his sister attends the Savannah college of Art and Design with an emphasis in animation.

Minha's family is packing up the house to go care for a sick relative in Pakistan. She might go with them to attend med school.

This is about me, but it's about a lot more. I want to talk about teaching and learning in a complex way. Every negative thing I've read about teaching in the last four years has been about one of two things: how teachers' unions hoodwink the public, or the raging battle about standardized testing. I got a little worked up about it, and wrote a blog post that went viral. I'd like to promote the true complexity involved in the art of teaching. If I do it right it will be more than just about me, more than teaching and learning. We all want to know what happens to the energy that ripples away from us in our best moments. I know my finest moments were spent holding a class spellbound. We never get to know how that moment affects other people, how they carry even a small gesture with them for a lifetime. It's a powerful thing to think about, because we all have that spark. I want to encourage that idea in everyone.

Alison is working as a pet groomer. She will major in animal zoology. She made amazing photographs of animal and human bones and anatomy in my AP 2D Design class.

You can help make this happen with your contribution. Your contribution will go towards the printing and shipping costs of the artwork large and small, travel money around the US, and photo equipment. Any funds that exceed the total will be put towards additional travel to Europe, Brazil, and Japan, where even more of my Diaspora awaits!