Teaching Artist Podcast

I had such a great conversation with Yvonne Kunz! We covered so many topics from using art to teach English as a second language to what’s working well with online teaching to finding and creating opportunities as an artist. Her work is beautifully layered and meaningful. I loved hearing how teaching kids helped her move towards a more nuanced style, away from shouting and towards a conversation around the issues of the female experience, domesticity, fertility, and the many issues women face. We also connected over being from Montana and claiming that place as one of the many places that feel like home.

Yvonne Kunz is a working artist and educator working in drawing, painting, and encaustic. She is from "nowhere" or "everywhere", depending how you look at it, after a nomadic childhood as a “military brat", although now considers Montana and the Pacific Northwest home. Yvonne holds a B.A in Visual Art from the University of Washington, a M.A in TESOL from the University of Delaware, and a M.Ed from Montana State University. She has shown nationally in cities such as Seattle and Chicago and internationally in Tokyo. She is currently represented by Gallery 110 in Seattle. In companion with being an artist, Yvonne is a K-12 certificated art educator. She is married, has two sons, and lives in Olympia, WA.

Thank you, Yvonne!! We kept coming back to affirmations to tell ourselves: it’s ok. I also loved what she said about being an artist and how she’s working to break down that patriarchal view of the artist as someone who sacrifices everything for their art and is solely an artist. Yvonne said that this view is unfair and unrealistic and leaves out so many people. Simply make time to make art and you are an Artist. Period. Whether you’re also a teacher or a parent or working in another field does not make you any less of an artist. Ok. Rant over. The way she has advocated for the arts in her community and pulled her own art career back after her hiatus (in which she got 2 master’s degrees) is inspiring. Let’s keep fighting for the arts in our schools, especially now where they’re so very needed yet so easily cut from budgets.

Blog post with images and links

www.yvonnekunz.com

@ykunzartisteducator on Instagram

Gallery 110

artisttrust.org

NYFA Classifieds

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We also offer opportunities for artists!

I had the pleasure of talking with 5 of the 7 amazing women who make up the Anti-Racist Art Teachers. A few months ago, Paula Liz, an art teacher based just outside of Washington DC, started compiling resources on anti-racism to aid her in sharing with fellow art teachers. This grew into a google site and now lives at antiracistartteachers.org! As the project grew in scope, Paula Liz also began collaborating with like-minded art teachers. The Anti-Racist Art Teachers are currently Paula Liz, Nylah Khan, Francesca Levy, Khadesia Latimer, Tamara Slade, Dr. Lori Santos, and Abby Birhanu. They represent an incredible range of backgrounds in terms of race and ethnicity, teaching styles, grade levels, experience, and location. Their bios as well as individual contact info can be found on their contact page.

Nylah and Francesca weren’t able to join us for this conversation, but they were there in spirit.

I am in awe and very grateful to these teachers for sharing so much actionable advice! They have created and are continuing to add to an incredible resource for art teachers and really any teachers or even parents seeking information and lesson plans around anti-racist education. Visit antiracistartteachers.org to check it out! You can find lesson plans, curated lists of resources and artists, and now artist interviews. If you have lessons to share, you can also submit them there.

Below is a statement from the Anti-Racist Art Teachers.

What does fighting racism have to do with art education? Everything. As art educators, we have the power to see COLOR, to VALUE all students, to create a safe SPACE, to FORM a more fair and just future, we recognize the TEXTURE of human life, to step beyond the LINE and learn to SHAPE new perspectives through art education. A future without racism can begin in the art classroom. We can be part of the change. Join us. We are anti-racist art teachers.

Blog post with more links and images

antiracistartteachers.org

Art Teachers for Antiracist Curriculum on Facebook

Anti-Racist Art Educators on Facebook

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It was so nice talking with Danielle Nilsen! We’ve been instagram friends since we were matched up in the Artist/Parent/Academic peer support groups and I’ve loved following along with the evolution of her work. Danielle talked about making the shift from more representational landscape painting to abstract collage and textile pieces. She shared her teaching philosophy and how she dove into teaching for artistic behavior and has adjusted the structure of her curricula over the years. She was so encouraging and inspiring! It made me want to work on a simpler daily art practice.

Danielle Nilsen is a painter, collage artist, and textile-maker interested in structure, fragmentation, and wholeness. Often giving new life to found materials, she follows an impulse to preserve, transform, and create moments of joy. Her vibrantly colored work is an offering of hope and a celebration of beauty in the overlooked.

Danielle is an artist and educator living and working in Saint Louis, Missouri. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from Drury University and a M.Ed from University of Missouri-St. Louis. She teaches elementary art by day and paints in her home studio by night. She is married to a fellow teacher and is mother to Genevieve and dog-mom to Bart.

Thank you Danielle! I especially loved how she gathers inspiration from her students and the materials of an elementary art classroom. And how she thinks of everything as a painting - from photos to collage to scraps of fabric sewn together. Her work is beautifully composed and even more impressive within the brief time periods available between teaching and parenting and the parameters she sets for herself of not cutting the pieces again once the blocks of color or pattern are removed from a magazine. Go look at her work!

Blog Post with more links and images

www.daniellenilsen.com

@daniellenilsenart on instagram

Book: Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking

Book: Studio Thinking From the Start: The K-8 Art Educator's Handbook 

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We also offer opportunities for artists!

I was excited to talk with David T Miller, whose work is so full of color and texture. He talked about having a dialogue with his work and encouraging his students to do the same - to listen to the work and what it tells you.  I also love how David talked about his lack of confidence and not necessarily overcoming it, but realizing that all artists deal with that and just accepting it. He said he settled in to what he does and who he is.

David T Miller has been active in art education since 1980 when he began teaching art at a High School in San Antonio Texas. After a period of seven years in the classroom, he became an Admissions Counselor for the Kansas City Art Institute. Art school admissions travel provided a first hand, national perspective of high school and community college art classrooms and their students. This was augmented by regular attendance at national and regional portfolio day events with insight obtained from countless student interviews and portfolio reviews. Miller’s initial goal was to return to the classroom energized and informed by the experience of two or three years of admissions travel. In 1998, eleven years and four art colleges later (Kansas City Art Institute, School of the Museum of Fine Art Boston, San Francisco Art Institute and School of Visual Arts in NYC) he returned to the high school classroom at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pennsylvania. He currently teaches courses titled Honors Art, Portfolio Art, AP Art and Ceramics 1. He received the Secondary Art Teacher of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Art Education Association in 2015. Miller’s teaching methodology has been referred to in various publications. He believes in student discovery as the primary path to learning. He believes all students are artists and everything can be considered art. One of his primary goals in the classroom is to stay out of students’ way.

Miller is an active art maker. His work is of a non-representational nature that strives for spontaneity and undirected playfulness. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. He has degrees from Southwest Texas State University and University of the Arts.

Check the blog post for more links and images

Art Site: www.davidtmillerart.com

Teaching site

@davidtmiller on Instagram

Padlet: The 'Isms: Watch & Create

Padlet: Resources & Activities

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Adjoa Burrowes has had several successful careers and it was such an honor to talk with her about her art practice, teaching, and children’s books. She spoke about narrative and the importance of telling your own story and ensuring that students have opportunities to tell their own stories. I was so moved and inspired by this conversation. I hope you feel the same as you listen.

Her discussion of the empowerment telling your own story provides reminded me of this talk by the acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "The Danger of a Single Story."

Adjoa’s words at the end about standing in the footprints of great artists are so powerful. Her story and her grit provide such motivation. To hear how she kept pushing to become a children’s book illustrator and then author by continuing despite hearing “no” again and again.

“Keep pushing at it until the door opens.” She said. Yes!! Force those doors to open for you!

I also loved her response to creative block - just sitting in that stuckness and letting it be time for incubation of an idea. She talked about how that pause, that slowing down is part of the creative process.

Soak up her wisdom!

Adjoa Burrowes is a mixed media artist and educator. Her multifaceted career includes decades as a graphic designer for major corporations, and illustrating over a dozen picture books - including Grandma’s Purple Flowers which she also authored. Her journey as a teaching artist includes years teaching in the National Museum of Women in the Art’s Bridging Communities and Arts, Books, and Communities (ABC) program in 12 schools, and 11 years developing art residencies as a teaching artist with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in dozens of schools in the DC metropolitan area. Burrowes has a BFA from Howard University in printmaking and an MA in art education from the Corcoran School of Art at The George Washington University. In her current art practice she creates abstract mixed media prints,  collages, and sculpture from reclaimed cardboard that address issues of consumerism, decay, and rebirth. She lives and maintains a studio in northern Virginia and is an elementary art teacher at The Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia.

Blog post with more links and images

www.adjoaburrowes.com

Adjoa Burrowes' fine art blog

Adjoa Burrowes on Fine Art America

@burrowesadjoa on instagram

Interview on The Studio Visit

Book: Grandma's Purple Flowers

Book: Everybody Wears Braids

Book: My Steps

Book: Destiny's Gift

South Side Community Art Center

The Kennedy Center

Africobra

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Jennifer Love Gironda is such an accomplished art teacher and artist. She shared really helpful tips on grant writing, teaching, and getting your art out there. I love how she approaches art and teaching and life with such a can-do attitude. She is so encouraging of other artists and teachers and committed to her art-making. She has been making a piece every day since January, 2012.

Jennifer Love Gironda is a teaching artist in every sense of the phrase. She studied art at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC where she obtained BFA and MAEd degrees.  She has participated in numerous art shows and exhibits.

She says “My goal is to put some whimsy and light out into the world, a little of my heART. “

Jennifer has taught art in various grade levels from K-12 for over fifteen years and is a National Board Certified Teacher.  She has written many successful grants for her schools and classrooms over the years. This year, she was recognized as making significant contributions to art and culture with the Liman Excellence in Arts Education Award from the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County.

I love her commitment to both teaching and art-making and how she builds connections. Everything is everything. Thank you, Jennifer!

Go check out her work and the work of the artists she mentioned!

Blog Post with images and links

www.jenniferlovegironda.com

@artbyjlg artist instagram

@studiogironda teacher instagram

Kianga Jinaki - textile artist (@kianga_art)

Jason Fleurant, aka JaFleu (@trealtoonz and @jafleu)

Anthony Burks - (@ampburks)

Edel Rodriguez

John Parra - illustrator of several children's books, including Hey Wall: A Story of Art & Community and Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos

Adam Hillman (@witenry)

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@pottsart

Support this podcast. Subscribe, leave a review, or see more ways to support here.

We also offer opportunities for artists!

So, I said I wasn’t going to release an episode this week…and I’m not really. This is a mini-episode to share more about our upcoming exhibit. I am so excited to be working with Maria Coit of Curated for Kids on this project.

Contemporary Art For Young Audiences is what we’re calling this collaboration between Teaching Artist Podcast and Curated for Kids.

Our first exhibit is titled See Where It Takes You.

This is an online group exhibition opening July 10, 2020.

During this Great Pause while we are spending more time at home connected through devices, this exhibit brings contemporary artwork and inspiration to children in their homes. This is more than an exhibit - it is also a resource for parents and art teachers.

This exhibit showcases for young audiences the work of nine artists, many of whom are also teachers. The show includes video interviews with artists sharing their creative process, the meanings behind their work, and their advice for aspiring artists.

The title comes from The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.” says Vashti’s teacher in The Dot. This book is a favorite of elementary art teachers and has even inspired International Dot Day celebrations around the world. That first dot Vashti makes leads her on a journey of creating all sorts of dots, exploring color and scale, positive and negative space. Like many contemporary artists, she discovers an interest and digs into it, pushing her work in new directions.

Participating Artists:

Pamella Allen

While our focus is on sharing artwork in an accessible way, the work will be for sale. 70% of sales will directly support the artists, while 20% will be donated to an incredible organization. We are thrilled to support Amplifier through this exhibit. They offer free programming for educators and have also developed at-home learning toolkits.

“The Education Amplifier program is committed to amplifying the voices of social change movements through art and community engagement by creating meaningful ways for educators and their students to join the conversation. We achieve this by collaborating with social change movements to create and distribute teaching tools such as artwork, lesson plans, art builds, and storytelling opportunities to registered Amplifier educators for their classrooms. We are bridging the gap between education and social change movements to inspire youth around the country to lead social change.”

Join us for our opening online event on Friday, July 10th in instagram live! We’re also planning to do an artist talk event series, so be sure to follow us @teachingartistpodcast and @curatedforkids. I can’t wait!!

You can support this exhibition and podcast in many ways! Find out how at www.teachingartistpodcast.com/support/

It was so much fun talking with Mark Rode! Our chat brought me down memory lane a bit as my path was similar in many ways to his. Living in New York in our 20’s, engaged in the art world there, with dreams of becoming an art professor. I loved hearing how Mark’s dreams shifted and how his art practice is also shifting to better align with other values in life - like family and stability!

It’s also been helpful doing follow-up chats about racism with the artists I’ve interviewed. I realize that these questions were shockingly lacking from my initial thoughts about what to discuss, so my attempt to rectify that is going back to those that have been recorded, but not yet released. Mark talked about several Black artists that he likes to share with students, including one I didn’t know. I’ll link to them in the blog post, so go check that out.

Building community and advocating for ourselves and our profession is so important. I love what Mark has done to highlight other art teachers with his interview website, ask the art teacher. Go check it out! He has some great interviews with incredible art teachers including Don Masse, Nic Hahn, Cassie Stephens, Julie Voigt and many more.

I also really like his paintings and how he pushes space and depth using hard lines, opacity, value, color, and texture. I’m excited to see what’s next as his practice ebbs and flows. It was nice to talk about the reality of trying to maintain an art practice while teaching and parenting young children. And Mark is still in the thick of it with a 4 year old and 8 month old! I love his idea of shifting to drawing or watercolor on paper for a while.

Mark Rode is an artist and educator based in Minneapolis.  He paints within the realm of geometric abstraction, exploring the spatial possibilities and contradictions in the picture plane. Mark also teaches visual art to students in grades 1-5 at an elementary school in the Twin Cities.  His students are a continual source of inspiration.

www.markrodeonline.com

Ask the Art Teacher

@artwithmr.rode (Teaching Instagram)

@mark_rode (Personal Instagram)

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Support this podcast. Subscribe, leave a review, or see more ways to support here.

We also offer opportunities for artists!

It was so great talking with Chris Brandt about her winding path to teaching, her art-making, and TAB. I’ve mentioned before how I started attempting to shift to teaching for artistic behavior (or TAB) this year, so it was so helpful to hear about how Chris structures her curricula and sets up her classroom.

Chris was generous with her time in recording a second time to talk about racism very honestly and with vulnerability. I really appreciate her openness and desire to continue improving how she works towards eliminating racism in her classroom and teaching. With this addendum, the episode got quite long, but I decided to keep it all together in one long episode... listen in chunks if needed.  :) 

Christina (Chris) Brandt is a teaching artist at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas.  She graduated with a BFA in drawing and painting from The Ohio State University, and recently completed her master’s degree in Art Education from Texas Tech University.

Chris still paints but has expanded her work into clay and metals as well.  Her recent sculptures are based on Aesop’s fables, depicting the animals as they learn human moral lessons.

Chris teaches Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, primer and fourth grade art as well as eighth grade ceramics and sculpture.  The Hockaday School is a PK-12 girls’ school that values the fine art.  Chris uses the Teaching for Artistic Behavior method in her early childhood art classroom.  The girls learn new art skills and methods while enjoying the freedom to create what they desire with the mediums they choose.

Living in a suburb of Dallas, Chris is married and has three grown children and three rambunctious long-haired dachshunds.

Blog post with more links and images

www.chrisbrandtartwork.com

@christbrandt1212 on Instagram

Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB)

Art Workshop for Children by Barbara Rucci

Engaging Learners Through Artmaking by Katherine M. Douglas and Diane B. Jaquith

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me by Maya Angelou

Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World by Selby Beeler

Alison Saar's Mirror Mirror; Mulatta Seeking Inner Negress II, 2015

A brief article about Alison Saar

Toko Shinoda's work that "blends traditional calligraphy with Modern abstraction"

Kimmy Cantrell's Masks

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Speaking with Liz Brent was so refreshing! Her passion for art and for her students came through so strongly. I loved hearing how she balances it all and how she has adjusted during this time of social distancing. Liz also had such great messages of encouragement to share!

It was so evident in talking with her that she cares deeply for all her students - whether kids she’s working with in school, or adults she’s teaching through her membership program. I’m also so impressed with her business sense - something I’m struggling with - and how she continues to find new ways of reaching people with her art and teaching practices. Liz keeps love, patience, and kindness at the heart of what she does. She’s cultivating peace through painting.

Liz Brent is an art teacher, artist, and owner of BrentArt, where she and her family create custom art for people all over the country. She has taught hundreds of students how to paint - From K to Adult, beginners to advanced. She recently opened her online painting membership, the Painter's Retreat, to combine her experience as an artist and art teacher to share her love for painting with others.

She earned her BFA in Art Education and Masters in Special Education and is currently a high school special education teacher and case manager.

With her experience working with diverse learners, she makes sure to break down painting into a simple, step-by step process. From art camps and nursing homes, to high schools and community centers, she’s pretty much taught everywhere.

She says “My goal is to make art accessible for all, one lesson at a time.”

Thank you, Liz!

Blog post with links and images

www.lizbrentart.com

Teachable

@lizbrentart on instagram

Liz Brent Art on Facebook

Patreon

Brent Art (the Brent family business)

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Follow: @teachingartistpodcast

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Support this podcast. Subscribe, leave a review, or see more ways to support here.

We also offer opportunities for artists!