My Personal Art History- Gail Talmadge
I never thought of my personal history of art education until this assignment, and found it to be very thought provoking. From my earliest memories I had a great interest in art, namely in design. As a young child I would notice color combinations, textures, lighting and accessories, how they were placed and arranged. While riding in the car with my parents I would imagine how a house would look better with a different color door, shutters or landscape. As I was thinking about how art education has influenced my youth, I tried to remember my elementary school art experience, and I could not remember one thing about it. I called a childhood friend and asked if we even had art! She didn’t remember anything about an exact project, but could remember where the art room was. I found this to be very eye-opening; why didn’t I remember anything about art in elementary school? Was it so boring?
In middle school things changed greatly for me in the area of art education. I had three wonderful male teachers each teaching a different grade. “Doc” Bouton, was a friendly man who taught us drawing, this is the first recollection I remember of learning to draw in the 6th grade. His method of teaching was to draw on the chalkboard teaching lines, and form, I can remember drawing the human hand, and I did very well, surprising myself. Once he showed us what to do, he would let us go on our own and work on projects, he would walk around the room and speak with each student individually, he would ask questions, give suggestions and I never felt criticized. We sat at tables of four, and we were allowed to socialize, but we knew we had to be doing the work. This is where my love of art began. Not until I was an adult did, I find out that “Doc” Bouton was a very accomplished water color artist. My 7th-grade teacher was Mr. Henderson, he was a tall thin man and everyone loved him, his students, and his fellow teachers. He was very motivational and inspiring. I couldn’t wait to get to his class, he was eager to encourage us to challenge ourselves to think out of the box. In the beginning of the year he outlined what our goals were and the projects we would be doing. If you got a bit behind on one project, he would let you continue at your own pace but push you a bit to finish to get on to the next one. He had us develop our own ideas while following his methods of instruction. In 8th grade my teacher Mr. Griffith was a younger man- and kind of a rebel, he had long hair, a beard and mustache and laughed a lot. This was the 70’s so you can picture how different he would have looked compared to the other more conservative teachers. I don’t remember much about his class either other than that he was very hands-off teaching. In this class we worked with clay and the kiln, I do remember many students hanging around after school to talk to him.
By the time I got to high school I was taking art classes as much as I could. Art in high school was elective only and I took every opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, in high school my teacher was Mr. Brosch, he was not the friendliest guy, seemed to have favorite students (I was not one of them) and he seemed very jaded and unhappy to be teaching. I remember him yelling a lot. I do think he would have been better suited for younger students, as he could not discipline some of the older boys, he seemed intimidated by them. He did play music every day, and always asked what we wanted to listen too. The classes were a little longer as they were electives, and it was a very open “free” experience. He gave us 10 projects that had to be done in the course of the year, and he would accept them all at the end to be graded. He did not care which ones you worked on or in what order as long as you had them finished. He would walk around the room and make suggestions. I felt that we actually had too much freedom, as many students took advantage to socialize more than work, and time management was hard to come by for this age group.
Jump ahead fifteen years, I had not gone to college after high school, instead started working, got married and started a family. My plan was to go to college for interior design, my first love but life got in the way. My husband and I started an antique business, and we learned on our own how to refinish furniture. It was at this time, that I started painting furniture. If the piece was not worthy of refinishing as a fine antique, I would paint it into something else. I would take the piece and stare at it and let it “tell” me what I should paint on it. After a time, I started selling pieces at shows, and started getting commissioned to do pieces. At this point I found a woman who was a faux finish artist. Carol Duschene had originally been a textile artist before retiring to teach privately. I took some classes from her marbleizing, glazing and gold leafing. She taught out of her home studio and this had a great influence on me, she was making money and doing what she loved at the same time by teaching art privately. I had a successful business painting furniture and accessories for nearly ten years. Once I got a divorce, I had to put my art on hold. For the next decade I didn’t do much art and worked as a realtor, I specialized in home staging- back to my first love of interior design. I believe design and art go hand in hand- you can’t have one without the other. During this time, I started again with painting furniture, teaching myself new methods by trial and experience. Around this time, six years ago, I was commissioned to paint some wine glasses for a client. She suggested I start teaching others how to do so, and my Taste & Paint business was born. I jumped in with no knowledge of how to exactly teach a class, but my first class was packed with people and I just started. Thank goodness I was not shy, and many of the people in that first class were my friends. I felt a natural ease to teach and at the same time instill confidence in the participants.
I decided to go back to school in 2013 online at SUNY Empire State College for art. At Empire State you decide your degree program, and the board approves of it or not. I settled on Sustainable Design. While studying for my bachelor’s degree I had several very influential professors, studio art, beginning photography, sustainable art were some of my favorite classes that I gained considerable knowledge, techniques and skill. I graduated in 2016, still teaching my Taste & Paint classes- now as a full-time business. Last year I decided I wanted to further my education by getting my masters in art education. Every course I have taken so far at the University of Florida has been eye-opening. I have now added teaching seniors at adult living centers to my list of clients and the insight I have gained from teaching these participants is unexplainable. My goal once I am finished with my studies is to focus on art education in the senior population. The one thing I have learned from art education as both a student and as a teacher is to just do it. Jump in with both feet and enjoy yourself.
Today's Renaissance Woman 