Autobiography As a young awkward child, when most of the neighborhood kids were outside playing cops and robbers until their fathers whistled for them to come home for dinner, I spent most of my time sitting in my bedroom reading Calvin and Hobbes and copying Spider Man comics frame by frame in my sketchbook. When I was 12 years old my mom enrolled in me in a comic book drawing class at the local art institute in Flint, Michigan. Every Saturday my mom would drop me off in the parking lot and I would hurry through the halls as fast as I could and, if I got there early enough, I could usually get my teacher to show me a few tricks of the comic trade before everyone else came in. I loved that class. In high school, I never spent much time eating in the cafeteria. Rather, I usually spent my lunch hour in the art room with a few of the other
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“art nerds” obsessing over our newly purchased Prismacolor colored pencil sets and hot press illustration board.
After high school, I was terribly unmotivated to pursue any sort of higher education unless it could somehow be accomplished vicariously through art making. Tireless hours of undergraduate coursework soon followed as I pursued a Bachelor of Applied Art in 2D studio painting and drawing from Central Michigan University. After graduation, I made my living doing mostly free-lance work and over the course of four years, I painted over 25,000 square feet of murals for both major cooperation’s and private clients. While I refused to accept it as an inevitability, eventually the free-lance work ran out.
It was then when I came across The Arts of Life, a Chicago-based non-profit arts studio for adults with developmental disabilities, who was seeking to hire a studio facilitator for their newly opened second location. From 2010-2016 I was proud to be the community’s Arts Coordinator where I developed, coordinated, and facilitated arts focused programming for over 60 studio members. It was six incredible years of growth for me as both a working professional but also as an artist and human being. Most people enter into a community like this and expect that they will have something to offer a needing group of people. However, as time passes they soon realize that it is the community that actually changes them. This was what happened to me and it was all for the better.
During my second to last year at The Arts of Life, I began to consider pursuing graduate studies. I had often considered an MFA, but as I began to reflect deeper on my experiences as far back to my early childhood, I soon realized that the person I had become was not by my own sheer effort, but by those who were relentless in helping me discover who I was meant to be as an artist. The first people I thought of were my teachers. I remembered my comic book teacher at the art institute who probably ground his teeth each time I asked him to show me how to draw another Spider Man pose. I thought of my high school art teacher who sacrificed so many lunch periods that would have otherwise been spent in much needed peace and quiet yet instead entertained the company of the “art nerds.” I thought of my college professors who infuriated me to no end to stretch beyond the comforting confines of my own artistic preferences. Finally, I thought of all the wonderful artists and community members at The Arts of Life, who taught me the priceless lesson to never give up on realizing your full potential.
In the spring of 2014, I submitted an application to Columbia College Chicago in hopes of gaining admittance to their Master of Arts in Teaching graduate program for K-12 Visual Arts. Against all my personal expectations, I was accepted to the program. While working a full time job at the Arts of Life and providing for a spouse and two children, I endured two rigorous years of graduate study and graduated with a Master of Art in Teaching Visual Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2016.
With all of these experiences and people in mind, I look to the future knowing confidently that all those who poured their life into mine, despite the deepest of waters, made me who I am today- a teacher. It is with great hope that I myself now looking ahead to help foster a culture in my own classroom that embraces the awkward “art nerds" and sacrificing my own comforts to help students feel that they can have a place to belong, a place where their voice will be heard and matter, and a place where everyone can work together to realize their fullest potential.
After high school, I was terribly unmotivated to pursue any sort of higher education unless it could somehow be accomplished vicariously through art making. Tireless hours of undergraduate coursework soon followed as I pursued a Bachelor of Applied Art in 2D studio painting and drawing from Central Michigan University. After graduation, I made my living doing mostly free-lance work and over the course of four years, I painted over 25,000 square feet of murals for both major cooperation’s and private clients. While I refused to accept it as an inevitability, eventually the free-lance work ran out.
It was then when I came across The Arts of Life, a Chicago-based non-profit arts studio for adults with developmental disabilities, who was seeking to hire a studio facilitator for their newly opened second location. From 2010-2016 I was proud to be the community’s Arts Coordinator where I developed, coordinated, and facilitated arts focused programming for over 60 studio members. It was six incredible years of growth for me as both a working professional but also as an artist and human being. Most people enter into a community like this and expect that they will have something to offer a needing group of people. However, as time passes they soon realize that it is the community that actually changes them. This was what happened to me and it was all for the better.
During my second to last year at The Arts of Life, I began to consider pursuing graduate studies. I had often considered an MFA, but as I began to reflect deeper on my experiences as far back to my early childhood, I soon realized that the person I had become was not by my own sheer effort, but by those who were relentless in helping me discover who I was meant to be as an artist. The first people I thought of were my teachers. I remembered my comic book teacher at the art institute who probably ground his teeth each time I asked him to show me how to draw another Spider Man pose. I thought of my high school art teacher who sacrificed so many lunch periods that would have otherwise been spent in much needed peace and quiet yet instead entertained the company of the “art nerds.” I thought of my college professors who infuriated me to no end to stretch beyond the comforting confines of my own artistic preferences. Finally, I thought of all the wonderful artists and community members at The Arts of Life, who taught me the priceless lesson to never give up on realizing your full potential.
In the spring of 2014, I submitted an application to Columbia College Chicago in hopes of gaining admittance to their Master of Arts in Teaching graduate program for K-12 Visual Arts. Against all my personal expectations, I was accepted to the program. While working a full time job at the Arts of Life and providing for a spouse and two children, I endured two rigorous years of graduate study and graduated with a Master of Art in Teaching Visual Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2016.
With all of these experiences and people in mind, I look to the future knowing confidently that all those who poured their life into mine, despite the deepest of waters, made me who I am today- a teacher. It is with great hope that I myself now looking ahead to help foster a culture in my own classroom that embraces the awkward “art nerds" and sacrificing my own comforts to help students feel that they can have a place to belong, a place where their voice will be heard and matter, and a place where everyone can work together to realize their fullest potential.