Perspectives

Perspectives on Teaching

Mentors

I could not talk about my mentors without starting with my Mom and Dad. My Mother grew up in a family that did not value the contributions of women. Despite not being given the opportunities that her brothers enjoyed she found ways to spot opportunity and maximize the potential of those opportunities. She took every opportunity to talk to us about being open to opportunity and finding potential in seemingly fruitless pursuits, often saying that taking a path less travelled to the same destination can give you perspective not afforded to those who took the conventional route. My Father was the well educated first son in a family of six who was promised a University Education before he even started high school. Despite being a naturally gifted athlete and academic he always stressed the importance of a strong foundation and focus on fundamental principles. He succumb to Paranoid Schizophrenia when I was 4. He was separated from my mother a year later but they always remained very close. I would visit my father regularly when I was in high school. He would give me books to read and lecture me on not relying on my natural talents. Seeing him unravel mentally helped me understand the fragile nature of knowledge. There are no guarantees in what learning will bring but time spent learning is never wasted.

Professionally I was mentored Jennifer Jones, the Executive Producer at the first production house I worked at. I had no idea what I was doing when she hired me as the Creative Director but she saw that I had the skills to succeed in that position. Jennifer shared with me her ideas about managing creative and creative people. Two things stick with me — Don’t give people responsibility without authority and  Do your best to put people in positions to succeed.

Teachers

When I started my post secondary education I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I wanted to go, and my grades were good enough to get me in but I was considering programs based on little more than where a friend was going or if could make sense of the program name. I ended up at Carleton University in their Journalism Program. I lasted 3 months. There was a Professor in the program (I wish I could remember his name) that took the time to sit me down and explain that while I was either not ready for or not right for their program that there was a program that was right for me. He encouraged me to explore the University and what it had to offer. While I think it is a stretch to call him a mentor, without that interaction I am not sure what I would have done. His perspective, kindness, and focus on what was right for me at that time still resonates with me today.

Finally, Ginette Legaré, a Professor at OCAD showed me the potential of art and design education. I had finished my first degree at Carleton and wanted to find a way to express myself. I had always been interested in art and art history so I enrolled at OACD. I had Ginette in the second semester of my first year, and I sought her out every semester after that, even managing to convince her to take on my thesis project. She taught me about the power of my voice and those of others, for which I am eternally grateful.

My History as a Learner

I started off my post secondary education with a narrow view and an even narrower scope of understanding of what lay ahead. I was clever and motivated but intellectually immature and even less so emotionally.

I entered Carleton Journalism School without a real understanding of what that was or what it was going to offer me. Reflecting on the experience now I think that I was trying to fulfill external motivations, like the expectations of my parents or the suggestions of teachers that I admired and trusted at high school. At this point I also didn’t realize the breadth of subject matter available to study at that level. When I struggled in my first semester before a Professor took the time to help me understand that I was responsible and active in my own learning. I went on to receive a BA in Sociology with a specialty in Non-Verbal Communication, an area I never new existed much less cared about 4yrs prior.

At the same time I was pursuing a formal education I was learning outside the classroom. In the four years I was in Ottawa I taught myself to draft patterns and sew clothes. I took up guitar and started a band. I took cooking classes. I travelled whenever I could. All of this activity helped me to begin to understand who I was. Upon graduation from Carleton I decided to pursue a second degree in Fine Art because I thought I had things to say and ideas I wanted to explore. Art School I saw that as a way to do that.

Entering OCAD at 25yrs old, I was more ready to pursue my interests and take risks academically. I flourished in the studio environment and began to take reading and critical writing more seriously. It was at this time that I also began to see my Professors as resources with differing opinions, attitudes, and biases. I felt in control and as a consequence I was more active and responsible for my learning than I had ever been before. I graduated as a multiple medal winner and top FA graduate.

I felt assured leaving OCAD. I started an MFA the following year and it knocked me down bit. I noticed a subtle but disruptive institutional shift while pursuing my graduate degree. While an undergrad the school and department supported, shared, and sought to elevate me as a student. As a graduate student I was scrutinized more and professors shared less. The institution seemed to be holding a prize at arms length but not giving any road map to achieve it. While this experience was unsetting, it helped me understand that some academic pursuits are individual and that if I wanted a community of collaborators I needed to create it for myself.

This brings me to toady. I am still learning every day. In and out of the classroom. I think my range of experiences, and varied levels of success help me understand my students. I know that there are few things I like more that to learn something new.

Personal Artifacts: The Learning Journey

The following Personal, Professional and Academic artifacts have significance in my journey as a learner and have informed my approach to teaching.

The Remote Control Car - Personal

I was six years old. My grandparents gave me a red, remote controlled dune buggy for Christmas. When they first came through the door it actually seemed quite unremarkable. It was unwrapped, looked as if it had been used, and the battery compartment was being held shut in a way that even at a young age I knew could not have been the original. I was feeling a mixture of disappointment (what child wants to use remote control dune buggy for Christmas) and intrigue. It turns out my grandfather had purchased the doom buggy and taken it to a friend of his that was an electrical engineer. His friend had installed cutting edge, rechargeable battery pack technology.

I was already a curious child but this was the first time that I realized that everything around me was a sum of parts. Two months later on my birthday I asked for a tool kit and when it arrived I began taking all of my toys apart. Taking things apart and putting them back together has become a signature of my learning style, my teaching style, and has influenced many other parts of my life. I believe it all began with that remote control car.

Invitation to the 2003 Sueños Cortos Short Film Festival. Hecho en Canadà. Buenos Aires, Argentina. - Academic

During my time at OCAD I began producing experimental films exploring the culture of the copy, the idea of the doppelganger, and the narrative potential in false memory. I had shown the work in and around Toronto and it was picked-up by V-Tape for cataloguing and distribution. Later that year I received a letter that one of my films had been selected by a curator for a film festival to be held at the Museum of Art in Buenos Aries, Argentina. Because these films were not a part of any project and were the result of my own inquiry and technical experiments it gave me reason to trust my own voice in a way I hadn’t before.

When teaching I make effort to find ways to have my students explore their own voice. I support projects that are off brief and take every opportunity I can to show students opportunities that are available to them outside of the school. I also try to explain that “to be interesting you must be interested”. It was my curiosity about the themes and my desire for the research I was doing to have some kind of physical manifestation that lead to the films in the first place.

Key Art for Cartoon Network Canada Launch - Professional

In 2o12 while I was the Art Director at Astral Media for the Teletoon portfolio of brands we launched Cartoon Network in Canada. We spent more than two weeks in Atlanta at Turner meeting with the marketing and creative teams that had taken the CN brands to #1 in the United States in both of their major target markets. We discussed creative and how to manage the brands as well as key marketing strategies they had achieved success with. When the Astral group returned we were faced with the monumental task of taking an already iconic brand and make it Canadian.

In the end we produced an award winning campaign, working with show producers and artists from their studios in the United States and Korea.

In a debrief for the project one of my senior designers remarked that it occurred to him when we were in the meetings in Atlanta that all of these major players making world class work at CN were just people making stuff. We all acknowledged that there was an unspoken sense that we were entering some mythical studio when we visited them but quickly realized that it was just a studio like any other.

There are many lessons that I draw out of this project for my students. Many deal with the professional aspects of my discipline, including but not limited to, trusting your instincts, not being intimidated by the brief, and managing the anxiety of a major project. I also think about how students may react when I or other Instructors share personal experience and projects with them. It might be intimidating or even off-putting for some.