Teachr’s Lesson Plans for the Soul

Teach Each Child, Teach Peace, Learn Peace...

A decade into a career sparked by a personal, deeply felt, and urgent need for education advocacy, Teachr’s affirmational conversation-starters have evolved and expanded in scope, topic, and above all, visual artistry. Both imparting and gathering wisdom as he goes, the artist’s gift for graphic clarity is increasingly enhanced by a unique, painterly vision and a dedication to a diversified studio and material practice -- as well as empathetic, real-time responsiveness to the most pressing issues of the day, from economic injustice to political corruption, climate change and systemic racism -- all with a rigorously maintained appreciation for the importance of being an ethical, active member of a peaceful society.

Beyond the ubiquitous totemic logo/mantra and its exhortations to educate everyone equally, Teachr works along a unique continuum of the street and the studio, creating emotionally evocative images enlivened by deep palettes and rich textures, the better to advance narratives and bring more detail into focus for his city-wide audiences. From heart-strings pulled to funny bones tickled, puns enjoyed and points made, Teachr has more fully brought his entire background in arts to bear on his never-ending stories.

The most interesting example of this fusion of medium and message is Teachr’s unique practice for constructing his own stencils -- a challenge not made any easier by the engineering that goes into the blizzard of tiny, tiny shapes that create the proliferation of dimension and detail in his images. His level of gestural line-work is not often seen in stencil-based painting, and witnessing the almost ritualistic, labor-intensive method for achieving these effects, it’s clear why that is. One further result of his process is that his wire-mesh backing itself creates its own weather of texture and pattern, across layers of color sprays and kaleidoscopic splashes which further animate the images. Every work out on a wall demonstrates a whole system of painterly touches and dimensions usually found in studios. And of course, he does that too -- increasingly bringing the studio voice back into the studio, producing archival, stately expressions enshrining his outside voice impulse into captivating original objects.

But he still spends a lot of time on the street, and while he’s out there teaching, he’s also learning. He pays attention to the work and accomplishments of other street artists and urban interventionists, amplifying their voices through, among other means, his collaborative enterprise “Paint the Town” Podcast, wherein the crew highlights not only the eclectic work of urban artists but the music they love, and audiences are always sure to learn something new.