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Teacher-Artist or Art teacher?


Date: Sun Mar 04 2001 - 12:22:05 PST

The Schedules strand has been a blast to read. It reminds me of an old
vaudeville joke, "I felt bad because I was blind, and then I met a man
who had no head."

It brings up another question we all grapple with. If you could make a
pie chart, how much of the chart would be filled in "Artist" and how
much would be filled in for "Art Teacher?"

When you were a young artist, contemplating teaching, did you think,
"Teaching will give me time to do my art." Has this come to pass? I
often have to put off doing my art for lack of time and funds, but I
will get around to it this summer. What is a roundtuit? Can we count
on finding one of these? As I lie dying will I grasp someone's hand
and gasp, looking at bare walls which should have my paintings hanging
"but my school artroom was always clean, and my students made
wonderful art."

What kind of art did you do when young (in the 50s and 60s I did
Matiss-y type color field/abstract expressionist paintings, and
political and social commentary cartoons, now I paint bee-inspired
things, and do street photography).

I have only had three of my "art clubs" this year, so far, around my
big work table: holiday wrapping paper, valentines, easter eggs
(pysanky on March 24) and I DO SO HOPE the fabbo tampon angels during
NAEA. I used to have artclubs once a week with my artist and
non-artist friends. They kept me going, even though they weren't my
"real" art, painting about bees and apiaries, and making street
photographs, they made the creative juices flow and got me to
socialize with a lot of friends.

I am curious as Caryn was about your schedules, to find out how and
when you make art, how it fits in, does it meet your needs? etc. etc.

I hope it snows and snows in NYC. Did you all ever read Dr. Seuss's
Bartholomew and the Oobleck? "Oh rain and snow are not enough, oh we
must have some brand new stuff..." It started out with tiny tiny dots
of green gooey gluey stuff and took over the world like a blizzard.
Tiny dots of snow have just started to fall here in Brooklyn....

Anyhow, are we Teacher-Artists or "only" Art teachers? X Jane in
Brooklyn where MAYBE WE WILL