Has a student ever taught you something?

SOMEHWERE, 14" x 11", charcoal, artist Gael Perry

THERE IT IS, 14" x 11", charcoal, artist Gael Perry

J: Yes. I see teaching as a mutual learning process. You know, it’s not so much me doing all the giving, and not taking. A student’s response, a student’s question, leads me to explain it a different way. Their response causes me to see things from a different perspective. 

In the expression of their own work – it might be a certain color combination, or it might be the way they use it, or even a certain technique that they use – I always learn something from that.​

And, {laughs} I warn students in advance: “I am stealing. I am stealing. You put down something that I can use. I got it. Just so you know.” So it’s a mutual learning process.