I recently have had the great privilege and luck to run into not one but two former students who are now colleagues, art teachers too!
One wonderful young lady, Ashley, even came by for a studio visit with the same graduate painting class that I took for my degree. My mentor was her professor (so a double treat) and the wild thing is, I took that class a few years back with a former art teacher of mine. (Wow, is this a circle of life thing or what?) I am incredibly flattered that Ashley says I was one of her inspirations; as Mary (my aforementioned teacher) was one of mine.
Kathy and Ashley in Kathy's studio at VisArts
A totally different experience with my other former student. Tesni and I accidentally ran into each other at the Visual Arts Center is Richmond. Me, as a studio tenant, she, an instructor. We talked for about 10 minutes before we realized our connection.
Funny how things like puberty, aging and about 20 years can change our perceptions...
So, I don’t think I should try to comp any inspiration credit here but it still great fun to reconnect as colleagues. Anyhow on the DL between us, Tesni doesn’t know it yet, but I am even thinking about signing up for one of her classes. Wonder if that will rock her world?
Tesni’s work on display in the exhibit, “Work” currently showcasing Visual Arts Center Instructors
I also think it is really really cool that she just received the “Master Teacher of the Year” Award from VisArts too! Congratulations Tesni!
The most amazing thing about visual arts, I think, is the relationships that it just keeps creating and recreating on so many different levels-the elements to each other within a work, the dialogue between viewer and artist, artist to artist and just when I think I have experienced them all-student to teacher to student again!
So I am my own art teacher? Nah, probably not and it is not even a good song title. But, still having former students become your colleagues is a pretty awesomesauce experience.
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