Local Art Teachers Reflect on their Profession

LOCAL ART TEACHERS REFLECT ON THEIR PROFESSION

By Glynis Mary McManamon

Four North County St. Louis art teachers participated in the second annual Those Who Teach Can Too exhibition at Good Shepherd Arts Center in Ferguson during November and December of 2018. They shared their thoughts about their work as teaching artists with Glynis Mary McManamon, Executive Director of Good Shepherd Arts Center in Ferguson.

Victoria Ross-Mickan, Hazlewood West High School

Victoria Ross-Mickan, (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

Glynis Mary McManamon: Which came first, the chicken or the egg, i.e., the artist or the art teacher?

Victoria Ross-Mickan: My love for art goes back many years when I began my studies in Fine Arts and German at UMSL in the early 1980s. I was required by the German Studies program to study in Munich, Germany. There, I passed the German for Foreigners Exam at the Universität Ludwig-Maximillian in Munich, Germany and stayed on, hoping to continue my studies there. Sad to say, I did not get into the Munich Art Academy and had to settle for my second desire, travel. I went on to study Business and Travel and worked many years in the travel industry, which was also great! I was able to travel and visit some of the world’s most intriguing cultural sites and fascinating museums.

Victoria Ross-Mickan, Woman in Yellow Gele, (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

In October 2009, I returned with my son to the St. Louis area and resumed studies, this time in the German and Art Education programs. I worked as a substitute teacher and as a student employee at Gallery 210 on the UMSL campus. In 2015, I graduated with a BA in both subjects. Guess you can say that my art career was put on hold for a while, but it was always my desire to become an artist and I love teaching.

Looking further back, my art and German teachers at McCluer High School were a great inspiration. I teach Drawing I and Art & Design I as well as German at Hazelwood West High School. It is amazing to see what terrific artwork students produce in these beginner classes. Imagine what great artwork they will create if they continue their studies in art at the university level! Wow!

GMM: What is one thing you wish you had known before you jumped in with both feet into teaching?

VRM: I love art and I thought that most students would feel the same. Well, I found out that art is not everyone’s favorite subject. Many students take it for the Fine Arts credit that is needed to graduate. Still, I try to make it interesting for everyone. Also, I realize that I must slow down and explain many art techniques that I take for granted. Some basic things that were taught in school when I was a kid are no longer taught. I guess it is presumed that art skills are no longer needed. But then again, many of our students are really tech savvy and I learn from them as well.

GMM: What is the most unusual outcome of a lesson you taught?

VRM: Unusual? Well, I just taught a lesson in figure drawing and had my students work in groups to sketch a figure in a bathing suit or swim trunks before they worked on the project on their own. After explaining Da Vinci’s concept of the Vitruvian Man, each student was made responsible for drawing a specific part of the body. The composites came out a bit abstract, but very interesting in the end. Not just one, but many of my students have really “awed” me with their very exact portrait and figure drawings this semester. I expected them to be good, but they were really great!

GMM: What are your future plans?

VRM: Next, to continuing to teach. I would love to open a small art gallery myself. I am a small art collector and would love to exhibit my collection of artworks by other artists as well as my own artwork. If I see that a student shows great interest and potential, I would love to offer them the chance to exhibit at an early age. Can you imagine how it would feel as a 15 or 18-year-old to have your own art exhibition in a gallery space?

David Goodman, Vogt Elementary School

David Goodman, (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

Glynis Mary McManamon: Which came first, the chicken or the egg, i.e., the artist or the art teacher?

David Goodman: I have been interested in art from an early age. I came to teaching after working with young people at summer camps and ropes/challenge courses and enjoy being a mentor.

GMM: What is one thing you wish you had known before you jumped with both feet into teaching?

DG: Managing student behaviors is one thing that is not adequately taught in college. Most of it must be learned by experience. GMM: What is the most unusual outcome from a lesson you taught?

David Goodman, Cracked, Wobbly-ass Pottery (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

DG: I was teaching kindergartners how to make a monster from a cardboard tube and construction paper. As the students finished, I allowed them to work further on their own. To my surprise, they began making masks and taught each other when they had questions. It was an organic, self-taught lesson.

GMM: What is the most incredible work one of your students produced in your class?

DG: I had a middle school student in summer school who produced artwork that was clean, graphical and well composed, yet he had no interest in art.

GMM: What question do you wish I had asked, and what would be your answer?

DG: White and Gold or Black and Blue? The answer, of course, is White and Gold.

Tony Bodner, Trinity Catholic High School

Tony Bodnar, (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

Glynis Mary McManamon: Which came first, the chicken or the egg, i.e., the artist or the art teacher?

Tony Bodner: I decided that I wanted to teach when I was still in the military. I wanted to continue to serve by helping students see that there is more than one way to make something work. I decided that I wanted to teach art while in art school. I am formally trained as a glass and ceramics artist. I later received my MSeD in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in studio arts.

GMM: What is one thing you wish you had known before you jumped in with both feet into teaching?

TB: It’s not easy and everyone that takes art is not taking it because they want to be there. The thing that keeps me going is that students don’t have a huge art background. I find it strange since Missouri requires art education. I tell my students that no one is a Picasso or a Rembrandt but if they try, they can be the best artist that they can be.

GMM: What is the most unusual outcome from a lesson you taught?

TB: I recently taught a lesson that was based off skateboard art. I told the students that they could do anything they wanted as long as it fit on the skate board and that it was in one of these categories: fantasy, something that they stood for, or something that bothered them in their life. I was surprised and shocked, in a good way, by the outcome from this lesson. Students created works about social issues that bothered them, home life and some references the gaming fantasy world that they live in. The art work was amazing. The best I had ever seen from some of them. The best thing of all is they were excited to be doing this. It wasn’t just another lesson. They excited me so much that I had to work this idea into my own work.

GMM: What is the most incredible work one of your students produced in your class?

TB: I have a student that needed something extra. I gave her eight ceramic crosses and asked her to do whatever she wanted to them as long as they reflected faith. She painted these crosses in a graffiti style with words of praise, references to different saints and to the Pope. I am now going to build a larger cross to hang these from to hang in our school office.

GMM: How do you feel you influence your students?

TB: I hope that my students take from me that not everything has to be perfect and that there is beauty in those imperfections. I want them to see the practical side of art and to be able to understand it even if they never create another piece.

Tony Bodar, Ice Break (image courtesy of Good Shepherd Arts Center)

ALLTHEARTSTL.COM SPRING 2019 ARTIST INTERVIEWS

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