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Creating Doors Lori J. Nock

“If I could be a cereal I would be that Kashi Go Lean Cereal, because I’m a little bit Earth and a little bit of unknown” laughed Lori J. Nock, a photography teacher at Mountain View High School.

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Unknown, huh?

Well I could hardly begin to understand what she might’ve meant by that, so I questioned the part that I could make sense of.

“You’re a little bit Earth, what do you mean by that?”

“Well, I find immense solace in Nature... I feel that it’s my greatest teacher.

So I’m a teacher for children and my teacher is Nature. I watch Nature, how it changes and responds, and talks to itself.

I learn from everything, observing animals, the water, the trees, the earth,

and sometimes I have to do it on the internet, you know, cause I don’t have time”(Nock).

I cast a curious gaze in her direction. “Well, do you think that Nature is the place where creativity is harbored?”

Ms. Nock replied in an excited state, “Yes that’s completely true, like completely. That’s the absence of the human hand… a hand that’s been around forever. I’m pretty sure you nailed that one on the head for sure, that’s why I dig it.”

That curious and creative spark of “unknown” began to show.

We stepped into the dark room. “...And this is the developing bath”, stated Ms. Nock.

She dunked the glossy piece of blank paper into the clear watery liquid.

That was when the art became alive.

It sprang to livelihood as sections of the image grew darker and revealed curved secrets imprinted on the paper from the exposures that Ms. Nock had projected upon it. A bright craze of curiosity trickled across her face as she carried on. She instilled meaning into the students to which she explained each step meticulously. It

was clear this was a labor of purpose, and a labor of love.

I understood, at this point, that Ms. Nock was a purveyor of creativity.

Someone who hands off art to young students. Her work is the crucial connecting link between arts education and academic achievement. As a former student of Ms. Nock stated in an interview, “She really cares about students’ experiences with art, which I find admirable.

She tries to help people find what they want to say, and express it in a way that makes sense.”

More and more, people are beginning to consider arts education equally as important to the young mind as any other subject.

Denny Palmer Wolf writes about the importance of art in Becoming Knowledge: The Evolution of Art Education Curriculum.

“Research in arts education has consistently shown that the arts are a distinct form of knowledge requiring sustained and demanding work and yielding kinds of empathy, understanding, and skill both equal to and distinctive from those available in chemistry, civics, or shop.”

These skills being taught

through art education are not only invaluable to the brain’s development, but also to one’s ability to understand what it is that he or she thinks. Interpretation of ideas and the ability to express one’s ideas are a large part of what the creative process advocates and instills.

When asked about what Ms. Nock’s class changed in her, a former student stated, “I’ve definitely learned to critically think; that class really made me go deeper to find the answer for things, in and out of the classroom.”

As an art teacher at Mountain View High School, Ms.Nock has been imprinting this kind of specific knowledge and skill set into young minds for many years.

“I lived all over as a kid because of my dad’s job. I was born in Texas, we lived in Hawaii, my mother studied oil painting as a hobby and took it seriously. My grandfather was a musician and so was my sister, but everyone else in my family line was either a non-creative or an intellectual type” (Nock).

She was so different than everyone else, and this was, of course, obvious in her manner of speaking and her philos-

ophies; but so too was it true about her family line.

She has in fact always stood out from the crowd.

“I was the third one in my family to go to college, but I didn’t even go right away. I felt that it was too systematic. However, I learned with a college degree I could make change in the world and have a good way to do it.

Art is one of those things that appeals to kids like that because it requires stuff that combines emotions with intellect. I fell into teaching because I wanted to help young kids realize the power of it and help them say what they want to say” (Nock).

I wanted to know what made someone like this tick. What makes people want to pursue the creative spark that hides inside of everyone and bring it out. What is “art” to someone who lives it everyday?

“Well, I didn’t necessarily have a dreamlike High School experience either..”

Her nose crinkled and mouth folded into a look of disdain, “I always liked to ask why do we need this or why is this 3 necessary...”

Her mouth moved into a strong grin, and she put her fist on her flat outstretched palm. “..and I found in the art classes that I could answer the why, and I could answer it in such a way that didn’t hurt anybody”.

you always reach a point where you’ve taken care of all the basic physical needs, and everyone will then ask what else...often people discover art then.

However, the earlier people discover it the healthier they are, the better society is, the more

her bring to life a piece of artwork in the darkroom, I began to understand.

Artwork, whether it be photography, painting, you name it, is something that will evoke emotion.

When people become emotionally stirred up, they react. Whether art is to

make good change, or bad “It was almost like a empathetic people are to change, like propaganda, peaceful way of questionother’s ideas” (Nock). it does it through poking ing humanity…” Her voice Nock fights a war in which at the strings of the heart. trailed off. She looked up people question humanity It explodes feelings in a and off, with a half smile in order to make society loud and expressive way; that silently articulated a better place where art and sometimes it whispers her feelings towards the is the medium through them in a quiet, reserved topic at hand. It was alwhich change is allowed to manner, but in both inmost as if she was envioccur. stances it is a force to be sioning herself at the front Some may ask how reckoned with. lines of some kind of batart can make change. How “A picture is worth miltle. A battle for something is it possible for artwork, lions of words if it’s seen she deemed just. What pieces of colored paper, to by enough people. You can was that battle? incite change? However, exponentially increase the “If you look at it as a seas I stood before Ms. Nock, amount of words a phories of events in your life, as a student, watching tograph is worth because

the words aren’t what circle, but once it gets out ’m still there? Yeah...I is said by the artist; the there, the artist can go work very hard to make words are what’s brought away...yet the art is still it an inclusive environto the art by the viewer’” alive.” ment for all kids to feel said Ms. Nock, turning to

After being cleaned welcome in at MVHS...and the stopping bath. and dried, the fully debend over backwards to I could feel these emotions veloped work of art was help students experience being transferred now. framed and hung on the that”(Nock).

I could understand how wall, speaking to the pass- As I examine the image I my interpretation of the er-bys, whispering it’s see expression. I see an photograph that she was image that tells a story developing was beof how colors are bright, ing given to the and of how the subphoto. My perject is calm. I hear spective gave the opinions of it meaning, others, and take whereas time to devel“words aren’t what the perop my own son thesis. I see is said by the artist, the standwhere Ms. words are what’s brought ing Nock has next been, teachto art by the viewer” to me ing children might to look withhave a in themselves differand interpret ent exwhat they bepression lieve. I see where towards she is going, a friend, it, giving a creative inventor. She it more than is someone who hopes to one meaning. This continue her passion for force of emotion converstions of perspecconstructing pieces, and surrounding a work of art tives and emotions. No being within nature. I see is what causes it to have one is around to promote a teacher, someone who meaning. From that point the artwork, and yet even hopes to continue teachon the picture took on a a glance tells of the stories ing others to dream their life of it’s own in some odd and feelings infused into own dreams, and strive way. the canvas. to to be the best they can.

She turned to me

As she hung the As my train of thought again, “Beyond the monpicture, she turned to nears its end, I come to etary value, those words speak again: “I wanted to a conclusion. To me, this are what makes the art help other young people image illustrates alive. If no one ever sees realize art’s power and two things, “A litit except for the artist, say what they wanted to tle bit of Earth, honestly, the conversation say in the most easy way and a little bit is staid in a very limited I could….Do I feel like I of Unknown” 5