Makers & Mentors: David Gerhard

30 Hour Painting of Alex, Pen and Acrylic Paint, 5 ft x 5 ft

Teaching art is not arbitrary or self indulgent, but is an important act. I support people seeing objectively, and eventually help them recognize that they are actually seeing subjectively. It’s also an act of seeing myself grow, as I cultivate an individual's growth. Art is the object and the process. Teaching is not the final grade, but the act of getting there. The object is the outcome of an earnest and complete experience of the process. I integrate my teaching and art making practices. Sometimes this means that my art practice is not as prolific or detailed as I would like, and then I need to come back to it in the studio later. More often, it means that my work has changed due to my daily schedule, which is ok. I share this transparently with my students. 

My teaching practice is rooted in my art practice which is rooted in meditation. The students don’t know that… Shh. When I get in the flow state - that liminal state of consciousness - where an awareness of time ceases - I experience an overwhelming creative energy fine tuned to the tip of the needle. It is an immensely powerful feeling. The act of drawing, painting, sculpting, editing, etc immediately puts me in that state. I try to give my students different opportunities to get into that flow state. It is important for our human experience to feel a loss of self - which happens when we make and get lost in the process, and find creative solutions - exhibiting creative energy. We often do this while drawing from a real person in front of us.

In order to learn, one must feel safe. Caring for each other, and accepting our differences are the foundation of the culture of my teaching. As soon as we do not fear, learning can occur and flourish. This empathetic approach exists in my creative practice too. Hazel in the Hurricane, Aftermath, and the Futility of Tactility are all influenced by catharsis - and giving my students room to have catharsis as well. 10 year old Hazel made the monotype with me while experiencing the aftermath of the hurricane. 13 students from across South Carolina drew the hurricane’s destruction with me in the park. I shared the challenges of a unique and untempered upbringing with my students in the Futility of Tactility - the lesson was making monotypes; the outcome cannot be comfortably linked to a gridded learning objective, but is ineffably human.

My selected works reflect these ideas of getting into the flow state in a gesture of care with another. Together we experience the human condition. Noel, Marty, Alex, and Hazel were all drawn from life. Gestures of who I saw in front of me, while getting to know them - all across many hours, and a few across many years of knowing each other, but seeing in that moment. All but the last were drawn as demonstrations for my life drawing courses at the Governor’s School. I love these people, and that act of care is present whether they know it or not… and that dichotomy of the inward versus outward presentation of love is presented through the concurrent view of the physical artwork with the augmented-reality video overlays (that concurrently exist, but only to those who know how to access it). These new media artworks enhance the physical artwork, contextualizing my experience in a post-structuralist approach to artmaking… which is a fancy way of saying, it’s not for everyone, but for me - this is important and intentional even if it doesn’t make sense to you, and that’s ok. I am from 3,000 miles away from here. My students teach me every day what life is to them, while we look at things and compare shapes, ideas, techniques, and speak for hours about life. Despite this verbose page, I listen a lot, which is exactly what teenagers need: someone to listen to them, see them, and guide them gently while accepting them and their ideas as important and true to them.

My Resume:

David Gerhard has been the Visual Arts Department Chair at the South Carolina Governor’s School since 2018 and has taught there for a decade. Gerhard oversees all efforts of the department (including curriculum, culture building, and accreditation), and works with a wonderful team of faculty artist-teachers and administrative staff. He concurrently teaches all levels of both drawing and printmaking. He has taught art history, visual language, research methods for the artist and all levels of graphic design. He has also taught middle school and early high school in the Governor’s School’s Visual Arts Summer Programs for about a decade.

Since 2013 Gerhard has also taught as a Lecturer at Clemson University in the Art Department. At Clemson he teaches primarily graphic design, and has taught introductory through graduate levels of printmaking, and foundations courses in art appreciation, and digital foundations.

Gerhard has also taught at numerous noteworthy institutions including Frogman’s Print Workshop at the University of South Dakota, the Greenville County Museum of Art, Furman University’s Art Department, and Anderson University’s Art Department where he was awarded the prestigious instructor of the year award in May 2017. He has also presented his successes with Mindfulness Meditation linked to Creative Output at the South East College Art Conference.

Gerhard has taught broad subject matter from classical and contemporary drawing and printmaking, to new media art. He has also taught applied arts with web design, graphic design, comic book illustration and concept art, as well as academic art courses such as visual language for the artist, art history, and research methods for the artist.

Gerhard is from Sonoma County, California. He earned his BA in Art (Printmaking and Drawing emphasis), and his BA with Distinction in Communications Studies (Video/filmmaking emphasis) from Sonoma State University where he primarily studied with Kurt Kemp. After working in non-profit management for a few years as a Graphic Designer onto Director of Communications for the California Farmer’s Markets Association, he decided to career shift into teaching thanks to the support of his wife Whitney. They moved across the country for Gerhard to attend Clemson for their MFA in Visual Art where he primarily worked with Syd Cross among numerous faculty. Now the Gerhard family of five live in Greenville, SC.

You can see more of his art on Instagram by following him at @davidgerhard