Teaching Philosophy

The teaching class is not like most traditional figure drawing classes. The chief aim is not to instruct people how to copy better, or (in the short term) how to render the figure more accurately.

This course uses the experience of figure drawing to explore the creative process, the nature of perception and of identity.

The class has a great deal of content and structure, but the exercises have less to do with traditional issues of anatomy, foreshortening or theories of composition than psychology,neuroscience, body presence, kinesthesia and synesthesia. It is about the ability to connect and respond without the hindrance of preconception, fear, habit or inhibition. 

This course explores an underlying state of mind and body where creativity is natural and inevitable, rather than the development of technical methods to fit within the framework of already existing paradigms, which themselves are often the obstacle to the creative process.

The class is taught by Michael Markowitz. The thirteen images on this page are examples of his work.

To learn more read the American Artist article about Michael Markowitz by Elizabeth Forst  "Surrendering Control".   (title links to the article)

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