As the newly appointed art director for the Westbrook Schools K-12, I am excited to return to the art department where my teaching career began. It is a welcoming opportunity to integrate my classroom experience and art background, giving that energy once again to the arts. Westbrook has a highly qualified, professional art staff, whose dedication and support has eased my entry to this leadership position. Thank you, Lynne Shulman, Debbie Bickford, Linda Stanley, Jean Shorey, Melissa Perkins, Cheri Juniewicz, Becky Knox, Abby Harmon and Nancy Goan.
From the time I was a young child growing up in the city and summering on Long Island in Casco Bay, my mother taught me to notice my surroundings. “Oh Look,” was the commanding family phrase expressing wonder or delight, over some special discovery. Not only the big splashy things that jump out at you in Technicolor, but sometimes the most subtle, quiet things:
Frost crystallizing on a winter windowpane, ants playing follow the leader, squawky music from wax paper on a comb, snap crackle lightning from scuffing a rug, crows talking at dawn, color drenched sunsets, laughing till it hurts…”Oh Look, it’s a double rainbow!”
My mother taught my brothers and me to be aware and observe carefully the beauty in nature, and in the most ordinary things. From an early age, I learned to respect the environment and others, not waste things, use my imagination, and tell the truth. That is the formative thinking that has shaped me as an artist and teacher. Live with awareness, be open to change, treat yourself, others, your surroundings, and all living things with honesty and respect. Those simple guidelines form the foundation of my philosophy for living and teaching.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved drawing, painting, coloring and creating things. Early on, I knew that I would like to be an artist like my mother, or a teacher like my father. It was no surprise that I decided to combine the two influences, and become an art teacher!
I completed under-graduate studies at the University of Maine (when it was called Gorham State Teacher’s College), and later earned my master’s degree in art education, with a major in painting, from the State University of New York at New Paltz. In addition to college and university studies, travel has been an influence that has broadened my knowledge, and taught me a great deal about the world.
The Fulbright Organization granted me a Teacher’s Exchange position during which I taught for a year in Exeter, England. That inspirational, life-changing time continues to influence my awareness and appreciation of world events. For the past five years, I have served as chairwoman of the Fulbright Peer Review Board, hosting interviews for international teacher exchanges worldwide. We have established quite a stronghold of Westbrook teachers (past and present) on the board, who have either been on exchange or mentored an exchange teacher. The co-chairwoman is Liz Barker, and board members include Claire and Leroy Lambert, George Bentley, Allyson Montana, Lee Arris, Julie Coles Nickerson, Ginny Milioto, and others.
Although my degree work has been primarily in art, I have always had a soft spot for special education, and struggling or troubled students. For a time I took a number of related courses, and seriously considered becoming a special education teacher. Over the years some of the most memorable youngsters, are those who have struggled against all odds, and have achieved success beyond their limitations. Those individual children form the core of my life-long commitment to education. They fuel my belief that, “Yes, teachers do make a difference!”
My colleagues and I have seen that for some youngsters, school and education is the abiding constant, the standard that will make radical, positive change in their lives, and sustain them through the years. I believe in public education with a dedication and commitment that has spanned all the years of my service. Public school education is a microcosm of life.
My career spans 40 years of teaching in both the art and general elementary education programs here in Westbrook. For the first nien years, I served as elementary art supervisor for art director Don F. Axelsen and Superintendent Carroll R. McGary. It was a challenge and a delight traveling from school to school with a VW Beetle stuffed to its limits with art materials. Those were the days “On the cart,” traveling to all the neighborhood elementary schools – Rocky Hill, Bridge Street, Valentine, Warren kindergarten, St.Mary’s kindergarten, Forest Street, St. Hyacinth’s special classes and more.
Fortunately, for the students of Westbrook, its citizens have always recognized the value of the arts in our schools; so today we have a richer, broader program with dedicated art rooms, and art teachers at all levels. Westbrook recognizes that a balanced education must consider the expressive, creative aspects of personality as well as the academic. That says a lot for the city of Westbrook!
I believe in the possibility of change and transformation, and I have seen it repeatedly in my years as a Westbrook teacher. For me, there is no other profession that has such a noble purpose: educating our youth. To teach is to learn every day. To teach is to remain receptive, intuitive, and responsive to the vastly different needs of our students. To teach is to continually strive to provide our youth with the best education for life. I consider it an honor to be an educator in the Westbrook Schools.
Meet the schools’ new art director
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