Art teachers show serious side in exhibit

By Jessica Pickens

The M.A. Art Education Exhibit displays the works of four art teachers pursing their master’s degree at Winthrop: Curtis LeMay, Beth Beare, Silous Boyd and Kim Ham.

Art teachers in public schools do more than just finger paint with children.  Many of them are serious artists whose work is exhibited in local galleries.

The Masters of Art in Art Education degree was developed in 1992. The degree process follows two tracks: a research track with a written thesis and a studio track that ended with an exhibition.

Students meet with a committee to come up with a thesis and formulate an idea for their exhibit. It is a 36 hour program that involves four studio classes and 12 hours of research classes, said fine arts professor Seymour Simmons.

The M.A. Art Education Exhibit displays the works of four art teachers pursing their master’s degree at Winthrop: Curtis LeMay, Beth Beare, Silous Boyd and Kim Ham.

LeMay made a “Book of Hours” prayer book. He based it off of medieval prayer books had set prayers for every three hours of the day.

LeMay filled the book with scriptures and prayers that he wrote and found.

“I’m a fairly relgious guy and believe in a good prayer life,” said LeMay, who teaches middle and high school in Lewisville, S.C. “This was also written in the midst of some anger. I am Catholic and was upset with the scandal of priests molesting young children.”

Boyd’s art work deals with his frustration and issues of politics in public education, such as the No Child Left Behind bill. Boyd represents this through ripping and tearing the surface of his art work.

Boyd, an art teacher at Fairfield Middle School, graduated from Winthrop in 2002.

“I’m trying to take my life experience and put it into my art and I want students to have creative freedom,” Boyd said. “Students think it’s hard to do because they are told how to do everything in their other classes. I don’t know if they like it but they are used to it.”

Beare’s work is a series of ceramic teapots that are modeled after hoop skirts and undergarments of the Victorian era. Though the pieces are playful, they also represent the roles of women in society, Simmons said.

Ham’s work is watercolor’s developed from sketches she did from her travels in France.

“I tried to show not just the end product of the art work but the process,” said Ham who works at Mount Holly Elementary School. “There is so much more involved.”

Each artist will also display their sketch books along with their art work, because the exhibit is also about the creative process that the artists went through.

However, the program is changing so there will not be a studio show for the individual artists at the end of the semester.

“The sad thing is that this is the last show,” Simmons said.  “Many of the graduate students have families and work full time so it is difficult to get through the program.

All of the graduate students who contributed to the exhibit are art teachers ranging from elementary school to high school.

“One of our most important goals is to develop art teachers as artists,” Simmons said. “We don’t want them just following a recipe, stop working and stop thinking what art means to them. It is a tremendous opportunity because it changes their lives and how they see themselves as an artist.”

The M.A. Art Education Exhibit is displayed in the Lewandowski Student Gallery in McLaurin. It opened on Monday, March 8, and will run through Thursday, March 25.