College of the Pacific

Lucinda Kasser

Teaching Statement

As a teacher of art in a liberal arts context  it is my goal to help students develop, through direct experiences in art, a set of skills, sensibilities, and understandings that enhance their ability to create meaning. It is also my intention to promote behaviors basic to the creative problem solving process, including an ability to focus, a tolerance of uncertainty, an appreciation of complexity, a spirit of experimentation, and courage to take their own thoughts, intuitions and solutions seriously.

Visual art is a mode of communication that takes many forms, is utilized for many diverse reasons and is present in a variety of contexts. It can be a means of knowing and of understanding the world in all of its splendor as well as its depravity. It is a realm in which human intellect and emotion are equally and,ideally, reciprocally engaged. Akin to verbal language, yet unique in form and transmission, the visual arts can be used to record, to decorate, to inform, to conceptualize, to inspire, to lament, to manipulate, and to provide catharsis. As an art educator it is my charge to facilitate the development of students artistic literacy, promoting their own abilities to express a broad range of ideas through visual art as well as their ability to interpret the expressions of others.

Lucinda Kasser
Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts
Email

website:  www.lucindakasser.com