Art Alum Creates Career as Critic and Teacher

Alum Isaac Peterson began a very successful teaching career while a graduate student at DAAP. Now, he's also writing as an art reviewer for a prestigious international publication.

While a University of Cincinnati graduate student, Isaac Peterson, 33, learned the art of teaching and of constructive art criticism.

Isaac Peterson at work on an animation project.

Said Peterson, "I came to UC because it offered a very intimate, almost one-on-one education in the fine arts. A previous graduate had told me about the program, and I do credit all the opportunities I received at UC for the success I've since enjoyed."

Those DAAP opportunities included both teaching responsibilities and travel. For instance, Peterson won a travel scholarship worth $2,300, which he used in summer 2004 to pursue his oil painting in Prague.

Isaac Peterson on a recent trip to Paris where he was looking at art for possible review.

In addition to this travel, Peterson also received the opportunity to teach at DAAP. He explained, "I was so lucky that I received the full teaching experience at UC. I received great guidance in teaching from Denise Burge (associate professor of fine arts) and Jane Alden Stevens (professor of fine arts), and the undergraduates I taught were able to flourish."

And Peterson documented the progress of his undergraduate students, creating portfolios of successful student work. When he himself graduated, Peterson had hundreds of examples of successful art created by his own students. That portfolio impressed the faculty and administration at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Oregon.

Recalled Peterson, "They didn't even have a teaching opening, but they took one look at the lesson plans I had and the student work I had fostered, and they created a position for me."

He credited his own UC teachers for helping him to achieve this success: "I used the lesson plans from my own teachers, specifically Denise Burge, in creating my own plans. To this day, they're (Burge's lesson plans) the first thing I reach for to prepare a new syllabus for my own classes. Everything I do to this day is based on their (Burge's and Steven's) curricula."

After successfully teaching two academic years at Pacific Northwest, Peterson is now teaching as a full-time instructor of graphic design at Kingsborough Community College in New York - while also pursuing a successful career as a freelance critic writing for international media while practicing his own art.

For instance, Peterson is published in the latest edition of the international magazine, Flash Art. In that issue, he published a review of a recent Matthew Day Jackson exhibit in New York City.

Isaac Peterson on a recent trip to Paris where he was seeking out art to review.

He actually began writing art reviews in the year 2000 when living and working in Ashland, Oregon. He worked in the printing press of the local paper and wanted to improve the quality of the newspaper's art coverage.

He recollected, "I was a grease monkey. One typical day when I was covered in ink, I left the press and went into the editor's office. I was covered in mud and grease. I said that if he let me do a sample art review, he'd love it. I said I would write for free and take care of the photo costs too. It meant that much to me."

Peterson did far more than write that one review. He, instead, wrote 52, one per week for an entire year. "They filled their TV guide section with my reviews. They really didn't put a limit on the length of what I wrote," he said.

And so, Peterson crafted and sculpted his writing portfolio. At the end, he had a 52-piece writing portfolio. He then began to write reviews of West Coast exhibits for ArtWeek magazine. That, in turn, has led to his current role as a contributor to Flash Art, which is published out of Italy. In that role, he reviews both New York City and Paris exhibits.

He stated, "It was the people at UC who helped prepare me for all of this. It was a really rich experience. The teachers take such a personal interest in the students. It was a great bridge experience between my undergraduate and professional career. It was a tough program, but I was trusted with responsibility and guided to grow professionally. I had great mentors in Denise Burge, Janie Stevens and Mark Harris (director of the School of Art)."

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