When I moved from the Philadelphia area to come to Austin College, I never expected to stay for 30 years. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I had choices, and the determining factors in coming had to do with the adventure of living in an unfamiliar locale, and teaching art subjects that were outside my comfort zone (since till then I had only taught photography, and my first year saw me teaching drawing, art fundamentals, and art history, which was just the beginning). A major factor was that I was led to believe, from more than one source, that it was a college-wide trait at Austin College to be considerate and kind in every relationship—which fit in exactly with my idea of being central to the teacher-student relationship. But, that it also manifested in the top-down relations of administration to faculty was also important. This, in my experience, has largely been borne out. I had just come from a situation in which politics were rampant within, and across, departments, and manipulation existed from top levels to the faculty, so the prospect of fairness and open lines of communication really appealed to me.
I’ve found that at AC I have access to the ears of just about anyone, and that I will be heard. To me, this top-down caring has a trickle down effect on the students: The faculty feel they are in a position to take a personal interest in students, and express that in meaningful and productive ways, and have maximum support along the way. My time with students has, by far, been the most important and satisfying experience at AC. I feel that I have been privileged to be able to do what I can to help young people find what they want to spend their lives doing. The embedded aspect of the faculty role at AC to assist students in whatever their needs happen to be, within the limits of our abilities, exactly merges with my natural tendencies.
Austin College students are a treat to be with. They are energetic, intelligent, appreciate being treated like adults, have great senses of humor, and are eager to learn. Being among people like this on a daily basis, and to know that I am having a positive effect on their development, is probably the thing I will miss the most when I retire.
I’ve also been fortunate at AC to have my professional/art making and exhibiting career supported, through psychological as well as financial support. I was prompted to construct a “career development plan” from the get-go, and this multi-paged document has served (with continual updating) as the independently designed manifesto of my goals as a teacher, an artist, and a family man. Thus, the College has permitted me to express what I wish to do in these areas, and has supported it throughout. I’ve never been told what I must teach, or how I must teach it. In contrast, I’ve been supported for all of my teaching and art-making initiatives.
I have always loved to travel, also valued by Austin College. Thus, I’ve gotten support to travel all over this country, as well as several trips abroad. Travel, seeing new things, has always been central to my photography. What has turned out to be my most long term, and continuing photo project has been what I refer to as “social landscape photographs,” which are essentially straightforward color representations of what I find interesting in the place I’m in. I’ve only recently taken this approach to Sherman, Texas, and it has been rewarding. I continue to make these photographs from all of my travels.
Since 1994, I have been intensely involved with Adobe Photoshop and have been supported in the creation of a studio/lab with up-to-date equipment. My desire to experience a variety of media and aesthetic approaches in teaching has transferred to an interest in a similar attitude toward artmaking. Thus, in addition to my “social landscapes” I’ve entered into several mixed media projects, mostly emanating from what I have seen to be suggested by the potentials of Photoshop. The notion of combining essentially 19th-century processes (cyanotype and Van Dyke printing, for example) with 21st-century digital opportunities, has led to experiments in a variety of methods and outcomes: archaic photo-processes, bookmaking, adulteration of the photograph via mechanical as well as digital means, and a variety of collage construction—again mechanical and digital. It’s been a very rich, if also frenetic, experience in course design, as well as being challenging for artists, students as well as myself.
The advent of our move into the Forster Complex has been one of the most satisfying things to have happened during my time at AC. The Art Department was engaged from the very beginning of the process, from meeting with the primary donor, Betsy Forster before any pledge had been made, and in choosing the architect, Gary Cunningham, and to include weekly meetings with his firm in communicating our needs, and responding to their plans. We were very fortunate to be supplied with the funding and attention to our desires such that every detail was supplied as we wished. One of the most difficult things about my retiring is to have to leave this amazing facility, which always seems brand new to me, even after almost eight years of working in it. It’s a continual pleasure to simply be in our buildings every day.
I’m often asked what I will be doing after I retire. Whereas my position at AC was what seems to have been the perfect job for me, the time and effort I have put in has created a backlog of things I’ve had to postpone. Even though I have been making art all along, I have plenty of ideas for new, and continued, plans for art making. They include the ancient medium of encaustic, which has intrigued me for the past couple of years, and drawing, which is a medium I enjoyed a lot as a student, but has only been pursued in irregular moments more recently. The two will most likely be combined as I also pursue more mixed media projects, which will also involve digital imaging.
Exhibiting the work is another activity that has seen my efforts reduced more and more over the years. To have one’s art seen is an important source of both closure, and of feedback for future efforts. There is no one mode of promotion, but many, and I intend to put more time into that.
I continue to love to travel, and will be able to do so at times other than summers and other time off, since all my time will be “off.” I also look forward to spending more time with friends, and family—a lot of whom are spread all over the world. I guess pursuit of travel will be useful here too.
My wife will tell you that there are plenty of little jobs around the house that I could devote myself to. I’ll also be taking my experimental approach from art into the kitchen, hopefully getting edible results. And, I intend to continue to have a continued relationship with Austin College, the exact nature of which is yet to be determined.