Juniata Valley Art Residency

Since quitting the day job in 2011, I made the decision to try to teach in various formats. I've wanted to instruct and share my experiences and knowledge since graduating college, but from the perspective of someone who's working in the field and has experienced successes. I really don't think I could teach at the public school level - that kind of job requires a different heart, angle, and discipline than I can put forward. The bureaucracy and paperwork just seem to go against the grain of my personality and desires. My girlfriend is a middle school art teacher, former part-time high school teacher. Hearing her stories, I respect the work she puts in to be a positive influence to kids every day, but really sets in stone my goal to AVOID that kind of work myself.

But I know I can offer a positive impact to kids in spurts - just like a typical Gemini gifted with A.D.D. could- so I started working as a substitute teacher occasionally at my old high school, and in late 2012 began doing art residencies with the Perry County Council Of The Arts. In this atmosphere I get to teach from experience, which I feel is just as effective as teaching through curriculum, provided of course you can express well through your respective path. I take a lot of heart in providing 'Ah-ha' moments to students while creating fun projects with them that they, their parents, teachers, and administration can be proud of.

I plan to post some of my other residencies that I've completed eventually, all of which have been based on comics or mural- making. I figure I'll start off with my current one. 

I was invited back to Juniata Valley High School to work with the art teacher and create another mural. The first one was well received by everyone. I thought the residency was a success over all, but I was looking forward to taking my mural design abilities up a notch. The first murals I designed for the schools shared a theme of the history of the region, something that requires a bit of digging for a rural area like Alexandria, PA, and the design concept was a collage of images over two frames of reference. The two murals were placed in the entrance to the gym on the walls, and would be visible to parents, students, coaches, etc, who'd visit Juniata Valley. The murals I'm working on now are being placed on a wall in a lonely corridor between the cafeteria and auditorium that doesn't seem to get a lot of traffic every day. This means the murals' audience are not visitors primarily but the school population - students, teachers, etc.having given a 15 day residency with 3 of Mrs. Rahoi's art classes, many of whom I had the pleasure of working with last year, I met with Mrs. Rahoi and Amy, Perry County Council Of The Arts' residency coordinator, over the general course outline, along with a core group of students for a brainstorming a session. From there I went on to produce four murals whose general theme revolved around the versatility of stage performance. Below are sketches of three of the designs, (I. Surveys deleted the other design)...

 

 

... And below are the final designs...

 

 

 

Stay tuned for residency progress posts!