Senior Thesis: A Weekly Update

Hello fellow artists! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day long weekend.

To give everyone a brief review of last week in the senior thesis class, Maddy and I had the opportunity to hear the visiting artist, Rusty Wallace speak on Thursday night about his journey and it was very inspiring. In addition to the artist talk, Maddy and I met with Rusty the next day to explain to him our ideas for our senior shows and he gave us both some really great feedback. Rusty Wallace is a great artist and if you weren't able to attend his opening reception I encourage you to stop by the Anne Wright Wilson Art Gallery and check it out!

Over the past few days as I have been preparing to work on my project for my senior show I have been thinking a lot about who has been the person who has influenced me to pursue a certification to teach art and to choose Art Education as my focus for my senior show exhibit. The first person who comes to mind is a teacher that I met a few months ago when I had the opportunity to visit Garth Elementary here in Scott County. Barbara Mason, a teacher at Garth has been working hard the past few years to preserve art at a school that no longer has art classes. Mrs. Mason is in charge of a program called Art Club which is an after school program for students who are interested in learning more about art. Last spring as a part of the ART313 (Art Education) course I was put into a group with three other students and we were assigned to write a lesson and teach that lesson to the art club on two different days after school. This was a great experience for me and I loved meeting Mrs. Mason, she is very inspiring because she sees just how important art education is for children and how crucial art is in fostering creativity in kids. I love the fact that Mrs. Mason is taking time out of her day to work with children and to teach them art, which is something those children wouldn't get otherwise during their regular day at school. Mrs. Mason has helped me in the past month in my journey to teach some students of my own and thanks to her I will be working with the upper elementary students at Keystone Montessori this semester (located just around the corner!). I am very thankful to have such a great role model and someone who I can resonate with. I hope to inspire the students I work with just as Mrs. Mason has inspired hers!

I look forward to sharing more of my updates each week!

Shelby