So how do you bring your experiences from overseas over here?
My students were older. Because they grew up in Africa, they were very, very resourceful. They can fix things, repair things. And they could carve bone, they could play with wire and make toys. So they showed me very often and they taught me which was great. They showed me how to make baskets from natural materials, they taught me how to use wire to actually make toys.
But since then, I've been able to incorporate some of those skills. There's a student last week who made a mask, and we needed to make a tongue. Blow a tongue into a snake's mouth on the mask. And so we used a piece of aluminum wire and we beat it flat. And that made it go wider. And then we were able to use files and sandpaper to sand it down. And I was able to show the students those techniques and that all came from my students in Africa, they would sometimes pull the tools out of my hand and start showing me things and tricks and techniques I would never have imagined before. And that all came from my students. So definitely to be resourceful.
And we had no clay because it was in a desert where I thought it was so sandy. So we had old flour that had bugs in it. So we took the flour bags and bags of flour, and we mixed it with old cement that had been left at the school and ash from a fire we made our own kind of clay for sculpting. And that was all from just being resourceful from the students. They kind of taught me to think outside the box a little bit. And I've definitely been able to bring that to my art teaching definitely.
So does your own personal view of art and creativity play into the way that you teach or do you keep that separate? Like your own?
Sometimes as a teacher, I have to step back. It isn't quite what I asked, and but you're thinking, Wait a minute, they're making the sculpture, they're using their own style. They don't have to use your style. So it's always in the back of my mind.
[Mr. Hill holds up Alex’s painting]
Yeah, you know, it's just like you, as a painter, you've gone off on your own. Yeah, I encourage that, you know, you certainly have stylistically, you have your own way of doing things. And I wouldn't criticize you for that. I try and encourage it actually.
For suggestions on who to interview next, please email Mr. Shallcross or Mr. Millan.