Comments on: Looking for Teachers

By: Judy Crowe

Judy Crowe — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:58:42 +0000

Hi Alyson, I am an oil painter. I have been teaching art at my studio in Spring Tx. and other locations, mostly privately owned studios and formally organized venues such as local and state art leagues, for several years. I have been painting about 20 years total. Right now I teach adults in regular weekly classes but have also taught workshops. I love teaching. It is very rewarding to see students grow from a limited knowledge of art and the skills it takes to become proficient as an artist to someone who appreciates the process as well as grow to love art in general. I try to expand my students ideas about what art is and what it encompasses. I teach the basics: value, edges, composition and design, color and how to mix it, along with basic drawing skills. I teach “everything you need to know about putting an oil painting together” and I try be diligent about encouraging my students to move beyond what they think they know and to learn to see and think in a different way. Thanks! Judy Crowe Contact info judyacrowe@EV1.net, visit my website http://www.judycrowe.com

By: Martha Marshall

Martha Marshall — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:48:07 +0000

Hi Alyson – I teach individual adults as well as classes in acrylic painting, printmaking, silk painting, papermaking, collage, and encaustics. Depends on what the student or the venue wants me to teach. I’m in the Tampa Bay area. Thanks! Martha Marshall

By: Melynda Van Zee

Melynda Van Zee — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 01:10:58 +0000

Thanks Alyson for your wonderful blog-I’ve been reading for months now and have learned so much, but I do believe my favorite post was your post on teachers. I have a degree in El. Educ and Art Education. I’ve taught everything from Elem. classrooms to Jr. High art to adult craft classes. In the past year I have transitioned from classroom art teaching, into licensing, gallery work and a wide variety of teaching venues outside of the traditional classroom. I have taught adults at scrapbook stores, churches, national leadership training events, scrapbook conventions and held a summer art camp for kids in my home. I am usually teaching about painting, scrapbooking, paper crafts, photography, calligraphy, or classes on creativity in general. I have especially enjoyed the switch to teaching adults in the last few years, due to the fact I have younger children at home and this allows me some “adult time”. However, I was also refreshed by the summer art camp for kids in a new way this year. They bring out a spontaneous creativity in me-I learned just as much from them as they learned from me. They always say in the education world that if you want to really learn something…teach it. I have found that to be so true! Thanks for encouraging all the teacher/artists who read your blog and newsletters. Melynda Van Zee http://www.scrapbookwithpassion.com

By: Kelly Parker

Kelly Parker — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:35:03 +0000

Hi Alyson, i teach classes in most anything art related – painting, drawing, fiber arts, collage, etc. i teach to ages 4 – adult at the local art incubator, art center, after school programs, local community college and anywhere else i can. i am also an adjunct prof at the community college working in the art department. i have been teaching art for about 15 years. i am now in the process of promoting my work and trying to get it sold along with doing classes to make ends meet. thanks, Kelly Parker Olivet Michigan http://www.kellyparkerdesigns.etsy.com

By: teemie

teemie — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:21:21 +0000

Greetings from Blooms. Teemie here. I have been teaching my folk art since 1987 to both adults and youth. Old fashion embroidery and ribbonry and now gardening and floral design. Seeing the creative spirit awaken in others is my thrill in life. I’m addicted to it. I have taugh mainly through other shops and my kitchen table. Both formally and informally. Last year I opened a floral desing studio up town thinking I would let go of my folk art and move it to a hobby. Since then it has grown into a much stronger part of my life. A very pleasent surprise indeed. Now I’m in the process of creating a formal studio here at the farm nearer my greenhouse, by moving a rescued barn from 2 mile down the road. My artistic business of vintage goods, embroidery and ribbonry along with herbs and florals speaks to women of all ages. It touches their spirit as much as mine. By pressing forward through all the naye-sayers and the obstacles I have become a better person, braver,more confident. It is my hope in sharing through the studio, teaching, my gardens, my art work, through living a creative lifestyle, to waken as many creative souls as possible. Thanks for this great site! Teemie

By: sally meding

sally meding — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:06:01 +0000

Dear Alyson, I began teaching only fairly recently and have found it very rewarding. I have been offering “Creative Abstracts in watermedia” at a new Gallery in my town north of Dallas, TX. I have found that many of my students, especially high schoolers (who I consider adults) are lacking in design elements and principles since they often become discouraged when their art pieces don’t “work”. I use a lot of humor along with design, to help guide them through their difficulties and it’s so rewarding when you see their light bulbs turn on when they apply the design elements to their own artistic expression and are then successful. I’m also teaching “mini mixed media” in our towns new “active” senior center. Sincerely, Sally Meding http://www.sallymeding.com

By: Jan Wurm

Jan Wurm — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 08:37:27 +0000

Hi, Alyson! I felt a need to teach following the deaths of those who had been my teachers. An impulse, almost an imperative, at that point set me off to teach, to pass on some of what had been shared with me, granted me. Since I was well beyond the freshly minted stage, I was really far removed from institutional circles. So I developed a course proposal for the University of California, Berkeley Extension Art Studio Program. Initially titled, “Drawing as a Visual Journal,” the course provided me with an opportunity to process my own art convictions-prejudices-and also discover that I had developed a particular vision. The thrill of teaching not just the rendering of object or figure, but how to see and the reasons for making art, the syntax and logic of visual language, this rested for me in the breakthroughs students had when they evolved their own personal iconography within a body of work. This course has been retitled by UC and is now called “The Artist’s Journal;” however, though more direct, not quite as all encompassing as I view drawing. Yet this has been flexible enough so that I have never been bored during the ten years I have taught this class: I never have to listen to my own voice repeating something, and I am never shown work by students which does not startle or delight in its freshness. Without a doubt, teaching has been stimulating, intellectually engaging, and personally a great source of satisfaction. My students range in age from serious, precocious 17 year old artists to architects, graphic designers, and art teachers with years of training and experience. It has been a privilege to have this experience. Along the way I have had the opportunity to teach Fundamentals of Drawing and Figure Drawing for UC Extension as well as other courses for the Associated Students of the University of California Art Studio. I would most welcome an opportunity to teach within the institutions where I studied, to stand in that lineage and to be a part of that cultural fabric. With best regards, Jan Wurm

By: Reveille Kennedy

Reveille Kennedy — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 04:44:08 +0000

H Allyson, Thanks you for being a place of sense and caring in this art world. We need you! My cousin Karen Pollart suggested I look you up and is the reason I found you. I have taught art for about 10 years but not always for pay. I have volunteered at nursing homes; most recently at the Life Care Center in Pueblo Colorado,and in Dallas, Tex.; and in a hospital in Farnham, England. After moving back to Colorado, (I am a Pueblo native), I began taking more classes, buying more books and painting regularly. Then I started teaching at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo, making watercolor cards, books, birdhouses and hats. Now I only teach colored pencil at SDC to ages 14 to adult. At the “Sheppard Arts Institute” at the Senior Center I teach oils to adults who often need to come on scholarship. We have lively conversations and learn about one another. I find great comfort helping people become successful. My motto is “Don’t dislike someone because they fail. Love them until they succeed.” Another is “You never know what you can do unless you try.” At my home I teach watercolors, mostly to retired professionals who come as they can when they are not traveling and we become great friends as well. I truly believe that overall I learn more from them than they do from me. It is challenging to find new ways to explain, demonstrate and sort out the best for each individual. Sincerely, Reveille Kennedy

By: Deborah

Deborah — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:14:25 +0000

Hi. I am embarking on a career in Art Facilitation, after a thirty-one year career. I have been wondering where the road would lead from here. Things have been falling into place. I know it is where I am meant to be. Some of the people I will be teaching are mentally challenged adults, some have mental disorders, but not all. So it will be multi level classes. One of the aims of the program is to integrate artists with disabilities into the mainstream. I will be writing the curriculum, which I am happy about, because I can teach what I feel. My training begins this week, which is centered around disabilities, and also behaviours. I am really looking forward to this, and I may work toward art therapy, which will be a natural progression, after my long career as a ‘hair’ therapist. LOL. http://blumoon.blog.ca/

By: Beth Stafford

Beth Stafford — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:59:56 +0000

Hi, Alyson! I never thought I’d teach anything other than Sunday School, but in 2001 I got desperate for income and started teaching two Continuing Education classes for a local community college. Actually, I started with one painting class and someone mentioned that they’d like to have a class in basketry offered. I said, “Hey, I know how to do that!” and the new class was born. Since then I have also had private students and have become a painting instructor at the Icehouse Center For Creativity in Davidson, NC. The age range of my students is 12 to 80-plus! Most enjoyable is working one-on-one with private students; however, being in a class can be creatively stimulating for me as well as the students. Over the years I have learned a lot, especially from some of the older people. They tell me that I am a good teacher; I prefer to think of myself as a coach, since it’s mainly a matter of bringing out the abilities they already have. Sort of like what you do: right, Coach?