These are photos taken of a number of my Écorché students in front of their sculpture last year. I average anywhere between 12 and 15 students a year. Anymore... and it's too difficult for me to give them each the particular attention needed.
Teaching in Florence, I was fortunate to experience students from all ages, all walks of life, from all over the world. It is not uncommon to hear three or four different languages being spoken in the studio at one time. The FAA is a very unique environment because of this. Having to learn to properly communicate and connect with each individual student... to teach and present this complicated material in a way that it can be understood has been difficult at times but always very rewarding. I am grateful for this experience. Over the six years doing this, I know it has made me a better teacher.
The students come to this class with different levels of experience. Some have never sculpted before and others only draw rarely. The students here are not copying Bargues or drawing from a cast. In the end the sculpture created is product of the students own weaknesses and strengths. My intent is to give them a system of studying on their own and to give them as much useful information as I can... the key word here is "useful".
Some teachers want simply to impress their students with all kinds of esoteric information that may or may not be useful to an artist. I am a guy who loves to draw and paint the figure. I am passionate about artistic anatomy and better understanding the human body so my interpretations can become more competent and sophisticated. I feel it's all about appreciating understanding the beauty of the human form. Anatomy is not something you just simply take once and then forget... it is something that is developed and honed with time. In the end, I make sure that that my student's sculptures look human and follow along with the canon of proportions I set for those shapes and forms. The rest is their own.
Click below to see a gallery of some of my past students.
