Amie Bantz is a working artist and high school teacher currently based in central Pennsylvania. Like many educators, Bantz experienced a range of emotions, surprises and sobering realities during this year’s COVID-19 pandemic and its remote learning era, including trying to connect kids to art with sparse resources, the limits of technology in the remote learning process and simply missing the daily social connection to her students and colleagues. In this episode of Trails to Peaks Radio, Bantz talks about her technical and stylistic development as an artist during her college years and professional career, including her recent move to create public, accessible artwork in her community to how her teaching experiences have affected her perspective of art as both a practitioner and educator. As a biracial woman (Korean/Caucasian) born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in the Midwest and suburban New England, Bantz admits spending much of her life feeling “a step outside” multiple social groups and professional categories, something she has expressed and explored in recent years through her own artwork and travel abroad to South Korea. Bantz’s professional work has been featured in public spaces around her local community and in numerous publications and other media outlets. For more about Bantz and her work as an artist, including prints available for purchase and her online portfolio, visit her website amiebantz.com.