I believe there are enough words of wisdom, enlightened lectures and seminars to define the means of art and its function in society, which have been supplied consistently by influential critics, journalists and historians throughout the history of art. But the decision to pursue becoming an artist and the role contemporary society assigns to the artist still remains a task which can only be defined and resolved by artists - ourselves.

There are nearly 20,000 M.F.A related students graduating in North America each year (estimated by Prof. W. Patrick Schuchard, Washington University 1998). However, despite the select few who are able to continue their work and become recognized artists after completing school, as negative - yet true - as this may sound, the majority cannot. While I am writing down my teaching philosophy of art, with all my knowledge of art that I have acquired throughout my academic years, I still cannot unrealistically ignore the voices of uncertainty and disappointment from that majority.

Is art or becoming an artist teachable? What kind of course outlines, seminar materials designed for art students would be able to prepare a group of vanguards who will soon amount the 20,000 each year? Honestly, I do not think there are definite answers to these questions, nor a guideline or any kind of substantial knowledge of art theories or materials and procedures of its practices that are guarantees of success. In other words, art theories and studio craftsmanship may be teachable but not art or becoming an artist. As the saying goes, "art cannot be taught, only can be learned". While in a field searching for the purity of individual opinion, what an art instructor does, I believe, is there to help art students’ "learning". To help them choose their own paths, recognize each of their unique individuality and identify all the additional elements, which can be reached only through a process that includes discovery, examination and cultivation of each artistic personality.

Art is a unique way of living and being. Studying art and becoming an artist is a process of liberation and independence, learning to see and feel and give voice to the world with individual opinion. There should not be any pre-set formula to teach someone how to see and feel, or how to be him/herself. An art student should be introduced, I believe, to the rediscovery of the true nature of human sincerity; to be helped to identify themselves in the mist of an image and information proliferating era. They should be encouraged to reexamine themselves in all the focus of reinvestigation and debates about art that inevitably lead into the searching for what is new and what art is about to become...? They should be helped to remember the joys of making and composing images and ideas, to rediscover the motif of human creativity and its sincere nature with honesty and integrity.

Art, I believe, is not there for studio-artists to define or to foresee its future. This is something that’s suitable for art critics and journalists. For studio-artists, art is a way of life, as well as a "process of constant reexamination and searching for each unique kind of truth" as Jonathan Fineberg has said, "to discover his/her inner thoughts and identity in relation to the constantly changing fact of existence" 1. In my opinion, art is a word that describes a particular human behavior (that of artists) and the process of becoming a unique individual. Of all the great words that attempt to define the relationship between art theories and artists, Sir E.G. Gombrich, the art historian, may already have given the simplest but most philosophical insight into studio-artists: "There really is no such a thing as art. There are only artists - men and women, that is, who are favoured with wonderful gifts..who process that integrity of character which never rests content with half-solutions but is ready to forgo all easy effects, all superficial success for the toil and agony of sincere work. 2 Studio-artists, I believe, are designated to make images not theorize them.

Professor Rosetta Brooks was my M.F.A thesis adviser, who also helped me a great deals in recognizing the role of an expatriate artist like herself and myself, and how it functions in contemporary society. The following article, entitled "Practical Criticism and Art theory in the 90s" was edited from a tape recorded during a lecture she conduced at Washington University, 1999.

Rosetta Brooks’s concept in defining art practice and art theory is still my maneuver for defining my path as well as identifies major aspects (both technique and concept) that make up a studio-artist. It is also my belief that the needs of reexamining the nature of art practices and art criticism is what has been lacking by today’s studio- artist and appears as a common threat to most art students. If I would be teaching a studio class, painting and drawing, this article should be considered as the main guide to my teaching philosophy.