I am originally from Union, IA, and I have lived in New Hampton for the last five years. I’m an art educator and I am currently heading into my 6th year of teaching high school art in New Hampton. At Marshalltown Community College, I took a required class, and I enjoyed the class so much that I continued to take art classes along with my psychology classes. After MCC, I went to UNI to double major in Art & Psychology, and a few years after that I realized I wasn’t happy where I was. So I went back to UNI to get my Art Education degree and I have been teaching since. Recently I decided I wanted to be able to teach dual credit art classes for college credit, so this May, I graduated with my Master’s Degree in Art Education from UNI. I am deeply interested in many media, and I try working in as many different ones as I can. Not only do I get to try new things myself, but I bring those media into my classroom as much as I can.
For my most recent collection of artwork, showcased at Marshalltown Community College and the Charles City Arts Center, I have been collecting work that is both finished and unfinished due to my philosophy of being an art educator. When teaching my students I rarely finish a piece of artwork as an example of what they are doing. This is for two reasons, art as “magic” and art that looks like mine.
All too often I see that people view artwork as “magic” and that it’s totally talent based, and without that “talent” you can’t be an artist. When it’s seen in that light- all the hours, months, and years of practice and experiences are diminished. So I try to get my own students to understand that hard work and practice can get you more than talent. This leads to trying to have the rest of the world understand the work of the artist.
When I student taught, I found a passion for teaching students but I realized that if I made a piece of work all the way through- my student works looked like mine. So I try to promote their own creative solutions to their work, by only doing enough to demonstrate the skills they need to finish the project. This ensures that know they need to finish solving the artistic problem of the artwork, and it ensures the building of their own voice in the work.
I really am a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to making artwork. I teach many different media, so you’ll see a whole lot of different works in this show. It will look like I have no true media- but my media really is teaching. I’m inspired by my students, my fellow art educators online and in person, and by all that happens around me. While my emphasis in college was sculpture and printmaking, I will do or try almost anything that I think my students need/want to try. I believe that every person in the world is creative- it’s just that we need to be exposed to something that can spark that creative spirit within us.
For my most recent collection of artwork, showcased at Marshalltown Community College and the Charles City Arts Center, I have been collecting work that is both finished and unfinished due to my philosophy of being an art educator. When teaching my students I rarely finish a piece of artwork as an example of what they are doing. This is for two reasons, art as “magic” and art that looks like mine.
All too often I see that people view artwork as “magic” and that it’s totally talent based, and without that “talent” you can’t be an artist. When it’s seen in that light- all the hours, months, and years of practice and experiences are diminished. So I try to get my own students to understand that hard work and practice can get you more than talent. This leads to trying to have the rest of the world understand the work of the artist.
When I student taught, I found a passion for teaching students but I realized that if I made a piece of work all the way through- my student works looked like mine. So I try to promote their own creative solutions to their work, by only doing enough to demonstrate the skills they need to finish the project. This ensures that know they need to finish solving the artistic problem of the artwork, and it ensures the building of their own voice in the work.
I really am a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to making artwork. I teach many different media, so you’ll see a whole lot of different works in this show. It will look like I have no true media- but my media really is teaching. I’m inspired by my students, my fellow art educators online and in person, and by all that happens around me. While my emphasis in college was sculpture and printmaking, I will do or try almost anything that I think my students need/want to try. I believe that every person in the world is creative- it’s just that we need to be exposed to something that can spark that creative spirit within us.