Where Lived Experiences Reside in Art Education: A Painting and Pedagogical Collaboration with Paula Nicho Cúmez

Abstract

This paper explores my perspective as a U.S. educated painter who participated in a mentored studio experience with female Mayan Kaqchikel painter Paula Nicho Cúmez. I examine the philosophy and methods underlying artistic studio practice and pedagogy that takes place in an informal learning context in which artwork is made in the home and surrounding community. My goal is to provide art studio faculty with insights into female Mayan epistemologies and teaching philosophies that may be applicable to feminist art studio pedagogy at the college level in the United States. The situated learning mentorship that I experienced and share in this collaborative painting study involves female Mayan pedagogical practices of consensus, fusion, elicitations, and evaluation of the painting process based on each artist’s ownership of personal and cultural narratives conveyed in her paintings. Through my experience of a nonhierarchical mentorship between two female artist-teachers from different cultures, I suggest ways to revise studio pedagogy in U.S. post secondary institutions so that it becomes inclusive of students who learn best with connected knowing.