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Sunday, November 23, 2014

A Pastelist's Thanksgiving: Teachers


'To the Beach Once More'               18x24               pastel              ©Karen Margulis
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I have much to be thankful for. I have been blessed both in my art life and my regular life. Since this is the week of Thanksgiving I decided to devote my blog this week to my own list of gratitudes.....A Pastelist's Thanksgiving.

I'll begin the week by thanking my teachers. All of the wonderful artists who so willingly shared their passion and instruction with their students. With their lessons I have been able to find my own voice and express it with my pastels.

I am weaving a wonderful piece of cloth. Each teacher gives me the threads....some more, some I embrace, some I may discard. But it is up to me to take these threads and weave them together to create my own work...work that becomes uniquely personal. Teachers may provide the threads but it is up to the student to do the work and weave those many lessons together.

"Teaching is an essential form of payback. Most artists, including myself, owe a lot to our teachers and mentors. It's only fair to take our knowledge and 'pay it forward.' Michael Chesley Johnson

Now as a teacher myself I strive to pass on these threads to my own students. May they all weave their own beautiful cloth.

I wish to offer a thank you to all of the teachers who have given me thread for my cloth beginning with my highschool art teacher Mrs. Ruelle to my most recent teachers: (in no particular order) Marsha Savage, Terry Ludwig, Albert Handell, Richard McKinley, Stan Sperlak, Doug Dawson, Ann Templeton, Duane Wakeham, Marc Hanson, Bill Creevy, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Elizabeth Mowry,Deborah Secor and Margaret Dyer.



3 comments:

robertsloan2art said...

Purr! We have one in common. A cloudscape by Deborah is hanging on my wall and I took classes with her online at WetCanvas. I love her painting and I love her online book, it's incredible.

I admire the rest, know their names, have some of their books too but knowing Deborah online and getting her comments made a big difference. Thanks for a great article today.

I teach when I can get anyone to sit still for it and we all pay it forward.

Sandi Graham Pastels said...

Thanks Karen for being one of many threads to help me weave my cloth . Happy Thanksgiving .

LauraGee said...

Karen, You are amazing! I so look forward to your blog daily and have learned so very much. I've been following for a couple of years now and your own progress is fantastic and it encourages me as I paint. Thanks for giving and sharing. You are appreciated! BTW, your downloads are detailed and excellent.