It was a typical cold and grey Thursday morning at California State University, Bakersfield. Nothing entertaining was happening on campus, and there were hardly any people there—just fog. It was 8:00 a.m. For most people, this meant two more hours of either sleep or complete boredom before their classes start. However, some people have the luxury of looking forward to having class in the new Visual Arts Building. Out of this group of students, many of them are fortunate enough to have been enrolled in the 10:00 class that is held in room 103. In this classroom, an instructor named Dr. Matthew “Matt” Rich teaches his students unlike any other instructor at CSUB.
Today, for example, Rich was walking swiftly around the classroom while checking to see if his students needed any assistance with their assignment. He did that instead of just standing behind the podium and lecturing and then expecting them to understand what he taught.
“He is a lot of fun, and he has amazing ideas it comes to art.” says Dr. Rebecca Weller, an art history professor who has worked with Rich ever since he began working at CSUB in 2014.
One example of how Rich avoids the typical strict classroom atmosphere is by allowing his students to learn by doing: instead of critiques being run by him, they are student-driven. This means that he does not just stand up in front of the class and discuss and critique his students’ artwork himself. Instead, he asks them questions that are based on what they have learned during his lectures regarding their work while allowing them to comment on each other’s work. For instance, he discusses each individual’s work by asking him or her and the rest of the class about the type of medium they used, such as charcoal versus graphite. His students respond by enthusiastically telling him what type of medium they used and how they dealt with it.
Eric Garza, a 22-year-old senior who is also in Rich’s class said, “[His class] is different from other classes because he lets us be more free-spirited.”
Also, he uses his own artwork that he creates off the top of his head during class time in order to demonstrate different artistic concepts, such as line and cross hatching drawings.
For example, during one of his class sessions, he just drew a cross hatched circle on the black board and briefly explained it after briefly demonstrating some examples of random cross-hatched shapes on his power point. He did not just spend two-and-a-half hours showing a series of famous artwork that applied that concept.
Rich said that a cross-hatched drawing is when somebody draws, for example, a circle and makes it look like a sphere by drawing curved lines inside of the circle.
“My goal is to be a resource to my students. As an artist and a teacher, I’ve had a range of experiences, and I’d like to share those experiences and knowledge with my students.” Rich said. This means that Rich says that he likes his job because he enjoys helping people solve problems and create new ideas. Also, he says that working in the new Visual Arts Building is both a treat and a gift because together, with his students, he is able to customize his classroom space for his class needs.
The new Visual Arts Building has been added to CSUB in the year of 2014, and its first class was held in it on September 15th, 2014. It contains the amount of space and materials required to allow Rich’s students to complete their assignments, such as drawing horses—the type of desk that students sit on as if they are sitting on horse while drawing on a large clipboard.
Rich has been commuting to and from CSUB since September 2014 because he stopped teaching at University of California, San Diego. He says that the art program is an exciting program and an opportunity to contribute his skills and ideas and learn from his students. Also, according to student Kalyn Dunham said that he likes his train of thought because it proves that he truly like his job as an instructor.
Rich says he believes that CSUB, compared to other schools, has students that are more ambitious and energetic, and these students bring rich perspectives to their work and the class discussions. He says that attempt to create new visual languages that capture their ideas, and he cannot generalize the students at the former schools because he has worked with so many of them.
This is also one reason why he has office hours: “[Office hours] is a great opportunity to work with students,” said Rich. According to him, that his office hours are important because this is a place to go in order to discuss a wide variety of issues—whether or not they deal with what was discussed in class.
One reason why he is teaching, according to Dr. Rebecca Weller, is because he wants to help his students find their purpose.
“I would recommend Matt Rich because he brings a rich environment.” Said Kalyn Dunham, “He brings a new feel to the class […].”
Furthermore, Weller said, “I’d love to take a class with him.” She also said that he is not like other art professors because he cares enough about his students to give them guidelines on what to draw instead of just letting them just draw whatever they want. Instead, he cares about his students enough to want to take time out of his life and schedule to assign guidelines as to how to perform the tasks. For instance, he did not just allow his students to just draw a circle that contained shading, he told them to draw a cross-hatched circle.
As Professor Matt Rich ends his class at 12:40 pm, his students know that they have accomplished a challenging task, and they do not have to be afraid to ask him for assistance on any assignment that they are having difficulties with.
The B Side 