Baden’s “Tender Trepanation”
Iconic UVic Visual Arts retired faculty member Mowry Baden was profiled in the Winter 2010/2011 issue of Canadian Art magazine, as part of their second annual “Art School Special” issue. In the six-page piece titled, “The Great One,” writer Ann Ireland leads with Baden noting, “Teaching is listening. It starts with the student’s vision, however flawed and immature. Somewhere in that vision is the pathway to a deeper and more complex expression.”
The Governor General’s Award-winning Baden, who retired in 1997 after 22 years teaching in UVic’s Visual Arts department, notes that “patience, perseverance and curiosity” cannot be taught, “because these features are in the bloodstream of the creature that stands in front of you—or not. If they can’t hold focus, you can’t implant it.”
Described in the article by sculptor and UVic alum Kim Adams as “the most important sculptor in Canada,” Baden is lauded by current Visual Arts prof Robert Youds for being more than just a teacher: “It was much deeper and more philosophical; he would keep an eye on what students were doing and offer a cryptic response. You never knew it it was in support or a put-down; you had to figure it out.” And Jessica Stockholder, former UVic student and current director of Graduate Studies in Sculpture at Yale, describes Baden as “the best teacher I’ve had.”
The same issue also recognizes UVic’s Visual Arts department as offering “Innovative Options” in the realm of Digital Art education “boasting an impressive inventory of high-tech studio equipment” and noting such graduates as Althea Thauberger and Jackson 2bears.
See the complete article at Canadian Art.