Faculty Spotlight: Jay Moskowitz

By Mariah Davis; For The Clock

On November 17, 2016

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Jay Moskowitz is a teaching lecturer at Plymouth State, and he has been around Plymouth for over twenty years. He was awarded the 2008 Distinguished Adjunct Teaching Award. Many have seen him downtown with his loyal companion, Ozzy.

Jay Moskowitz; artist and teaching lecturer at PSU.

Moskowitz grew up in New York City. After he gradated high school he moved around a bit, but he finally settled down in New Hampshire.

Almost all of Moskowitz’s adventures are accompanied by Ozzy, a Rat Terrier and German Shorthaired Pointer cross. Ozzy will be 10 years old on Dec. 3. “We live in a van, with my bed, instruments, photographs, and a collapsible table,” said Moskowitz.

This past summer, Moskowitz started a business selling some of his photographs, called Improvisations. “I travel a bit; I’ve been living in my van the last two years, and many of the photographs are from other places.”

Moskowitz and Ozzy went on a cross-country tip, where he took many of his photographs. He traveled to Quebec City, across to Ottawa, down to Madison, Wisconsin, over to Colorado, and down into Virginia. “It was about a three to four month trip. I’ve been to every state in the Union, except Alaska and Hawaii,” he said.

Moskowitz is also a musician. “I play guitar, and the harmonica, I also write and sing, and I play original songs,” he said. He categorizes his music as Blues and Folk.

“I am pretty standard at a Thursday open mic we do in the Common Man in Ashland,” he said. “I also play at the open mic nights in the HUB.”

Although he enjoys performing at venues, Moskowitz prefers busking. “Busking is a street musician. That is what I prefer to do when I perform: sit out on the street and open my guitar case for tips.”

This spring, Moskowitz has designed a new first year seminar. “My question for the last 12 years has been, ‘is success synonymous with happiness’? I have finally decided I am really tired teaching that.”

“I have developed a new question for a new seminar this spring, the question will be ‘Imagination and creative process, how much is 2+2?’ We will explore the necessity to synergize 2+2 so we might make it whatever we want it to be,” said Moskowitz.

“My real art is teaching. It is where I really put most of my creative energies.”

CLOCK PHOTO/JOHN SULLIVAN