Everyone can draw. I just get out of the way.

I nearly quit art at fifteen because a teacher wrote 'lacks natural ability' on a report. I kept going out of spite, earned an MFA, and have shown in nine solo exhibitions since. That report card is the reason I teach the way I do — no child leaves my room believing they 'can't'.

For fourteen years I've run studio programmes alongside my own practice, because a teacher who has stopped making loses the thing worth passing on. I've placed over forty students into foundation and degree art courses, but I'm just as proud of the accountant who takes my adult evening class and finally, at forty, believes their own hands.

If your school or studio wants an art teacher who is a serious practitioner, rigorous about fundamentals, and constitutionally incapable of crushing a beginner, my portfolio and my references are ready. Give me your reluctant class — those are the ones worth teaching.