Mary K Cloonan | Artist · Instructor

I believe that art is an essential component of our lives and it is a privilege to teach.

A teacher’s role is to guide their students through the myriad of possibilities encountered in the creative pursuit. A teacher demonstrates that facility comes with practice and dedication. Through the investment of one’s self and time in the students, one is rewarded exponentially by the cultivation of creative minds, strong hearts and clever hands. A teacher is a leader whose puts forth the question “What If” to their students instead of merely “What Is.”

Teachers work to orchestrate all the facets of art by exploring creative solutions, emphasizing skill and encouraging excellence to motivate their students’ potential to delve deeper as artists and human beings.

I have always hated the adage; “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

I have been blessed to have known or met many teachers that defy that cliché while defining what it means to truly teach.

There are many mentors who have kept my paper-boat on course. The earliest one is my elementary art teacher, Mr. Robertson, whose patience, wit and energy made me decide, at the age of seven, that I wanted to be an art teacher. Every time I hear Bohemian Rhapsody or Mrs. Robinson I am transported back to his classroom and the smell of tempera.