Jennifer wants students to slow down, look closely, trust their ability to know what they see, and discover what happens when they’re brave enough to try something that might not work.
Jennifer received a BFA in Painting with a minor in Critical and Visual Analysis from Pratt Institute in New York and has spent nearly three decades working professionally with art : as an artist, exhibition designer, and alongside her husband in his sculpture studio. That life in working studios taught her something she brings to her students every day: art is messy. Materials misbehave. Plans are forced to change. Artists must learn to problem solve, adapt, and try again. Sometimes the mistake is where the best idea begins.
In her Art and STEAM classrooms at USL, students draw, build, cut, construct, connect, experiment, make mistakes, change their minds, and keep going. Jennifer teaches foundational skills, but she isn’t interested in twenty children making twenty identical projects. She wants students making real creative decisions, wrestling with interesting problems, and surprising themselves with the outcomes when they keep going.
Her goal as an art teacher is to both protect and grow the curiosity and creativity kids already bring with them : to teach them to look closely, ask a lot of questions, follow an idea, and develop the skills and persistence to see where the process takes them.
"Creativity is intelligence having fun" - Albert Einstein