I am a retired high school art teacher, currently serving as adjunct faculty at George Fox University and Boise State University. A lifelong art educator, I have been named Idaho Teacher of the Year (‘02), Idaho Art Teacher of the Year (‘01, ‘05, ‘06), ING’s National Unsung Hero (’00), US West Teacher of the Year (’92) and was given the Governor’s Award in Art Education (‘00). Most recently, Boise State University awarded me their Women Making History Award (‘08) and their Distinguished Alumni Award (‘09). I created ‘Project Van Go’ over 35 years ago, and continue to take students to present lessons to tiny rural schools in Idaho and beyond, a program promoting student self-esteem and bringing art, to disenfranchised schools.

I have been working with cloth, dyes, fibers and paints, and teaching batik and mural techniques, as a practicing artist for 40 years, combining traditional techniques with environmentally conscious methods and materials. As I am newly retired from the everyday rigors of teaching, I am now focusing a majority of my “free time” to my own work. My approach to batik employs traditional and non-traditional techniques using tjap and tjanting tools to create 2D/3D projects. I am always conscious of the deep historical roots of batik, but with more experimentation incorporating other natural fibers. My work with painting murals spans the State with over 2500 murals in schools, Zoo Boise, the Idaho Humane Society, plus many other venures.

Inherent in the teaching of art are primal instincts to have fun and to create. Students quickly learn that the art room is a laboratory and invitation to explore. My teaching inspires students to push the creative envelope in taking art to others while learning life-skills: self-discipline, sharing, building trust and “self,” pride and dignity in their work, promoting curiosity, respect, and ways to make a difference, no matter how small. I teach my students that historical and cultural origins of art connect all of humanity.

It has been through my teaching of batik to all age levels and thousands of students, and my own work as a batik artist, that I have received recognition statewide. I created a batik course for Boise State University in 1976 where I taught it for 33 years, and also for the Boise Art Museum. My book, Batik and Other Resists, promotes critical and free thinking, individuality, creativity, performance and assessment techniques. I engage students in active learning through many approaches: demonstrations and hands-on exercises, writing, reading, and group activities. My own artwork, examples from students I have taught, and the book I have authored make up the framework for my teaching of this amazing and exciting art medium. Its historical roots are profound, and certainly the direction batik has taken me in my journey as a batik artist has been life changing. On many occasions the batik process is the first step in creating a larger work, like a quilt, or as a permanent mural in a school.

Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist.
I have experienced transformative moments many, many times as an art teacher, using my talents as an artist in classrooms, senior citizen homes, and hospitals.  Perhaps one of my top five transformative moments happened in the Pediatric ICU at St. Luke’s hospital. On several occasions, but one in particular, a former of student of mine asked if I would come to the hospital to do a plaster-gauze hand of a precious 18-month-old girl who was not expected to live through the night.

Gathered around the bed of this tiny being were her parents, grandparents, and siblings. The grieving mother asked if I would make a cast of her hand holding the tiny and fragile hand of her little girl. These moments, when I was allowed to be privy to the last few moments of this child’s life, were profoundly sacred. With each strip of gauze, I felt this life bond and the importance of what I was offering this family. In turn, a young sibling wanted his hand done, and stood very still for ten minutes while I cast his hand, holding the hand of his baby sister. Meanwhile, overwhelmed and in denial about the impending loss of his daughter, the father left the room and did not return. I continued making casts with grandmother and grandfather as well.

Once completed, my volunteer job left me with yet another sense that art can say a thousand words, when no words seem appropriate. I didn’t sleep much that night, as I thought about the father and how he missed an opportunity to have a physical reminder of his daughter when she was gone. In the morning I received a call from my former student­, the father had inquired whether I would consider returning to the hospital to cast his hand with that of his daughter’s. I was there in a matter of minutes. This was art therapy at its finest hour. It was apparent that he needed to watch and internalize the acceptance of what was to be, as his family and extended family each accepted, that his daughter was going to die. He thanked me for coming. My thanks consumed my very soul as I walked away… huge tears in my eyes… being speechless about the experience I was allowed through the artistic process.

When have you been able to recognize learning taking place?
Learning takes place, sometimes, at the strangest moments.  It might happen at the first part of the creative process and when kids ‘get it’ and follow directions.  But more often, it seems, learning takes place when a struggling student says, “this is the best day of my life, because I got to do art.” Sometimes, learning takes place when the finished pieces are hung and critiqued, or you see students helping students. Perhaps, one of the greatest gifts of realizing that learning is taking place is when a student decides that his artwork is complete, but the teacher knows that it isn’t. I’ve been faced with this more times than I can count.  The student decides for any number of reasons (laziness, disinterest, insecurity, fear of failure, etc.) that he wants to stop at a given point. As I question the student about why he has decided to stop, in spite of my suggestions to continue, I find myself explaining that it is my job to take ‘you’ beyond the place you want to stop. This is kind of ‘a moment of truth’ for students. As I walk away and nearly every time, the student will pause for a moment, reflecting on what I just said, and will invariably make another attempt to finish and show me that he understands and recognizes that learning is an evolution.

What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience?
For decades I have taken art to tiny, rural schools with my own art students as helpers, sometimes. My imagination is always in high gear as I anticipate the possibilities that await me each time I walk through a classroom door. I remember traveling to Jarbidge School in an old gold mining town in Nevada, a very isolated spot. The last 17 miles to the town wraps through the most breathtaking canyons. One student in the school, which was a converted trailer, said, “Nobody ever comes to see us from the outside… except you.”  Joining me that day were students’ families, their pets, the town’s author, who spends her spring and summer talking and writing about the gold mining days. Talk about a history lesson! She was nearly 80 years old, but she did the batik project alongside my students and shared stories from another generation. And to think that I was brought to the school to teach them something! Yes, the very nature of the batik process does excite because of the unusual tools we use, and the unique processes, colorful dyes, and never quite knowing what the final project will look like.

What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you?
Fun, discovery about self, pushing the envelope of the creative process, exploring possibilities, smiles, giggles, connecting art with life, hugs, involvement by staff/students/families/community, thank-you’s, and the feeling, as you drive away, that for a brief moment in time you made an impact in the lives of children.

How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist?
I continually keep my mind open to possibilities and push the envelope to explore ‘beyond classroom walls’ and ‘outside of the box’. I love to involve as many people as possible in the creative process, because each person is unique and brings to the table unique perspectives that add to the whole.  Allowing students to explore and praising their “wonder” at possibilities empowers them, propels them and fosters creativity.  Experimentation is key as are successes and failures.
“At last, the ladder, which had been built slowly, slowly, one hope at time, reached up to the clouds.  And the dreamer began to climb.” ~Anon

List three key understandings of your discipline.
1.  Understanding that the batik/resist process and muralizing walls has deep historical and cultural roots embedded in a history that has survived to tell us stories about the people who created and valued such works nearly worldwide and for thousands of years.
2.  Exploring age-old techniques and modern adaptations of the batik resist processes, and the method of painting a mural that is permanent/semi-permanent  for a specific location or purpose.
3.  Appreciating that the greatness of a nation can be judged in its works of art and that art (batik, murals) are a universal language.

List three outcomes of the three key understandings.
1.  Acquiring sensitivities to the craft of batik and the people and cultures that have created resist processes born of necessity first, and artistic expression second.  Understanding the power of a mural to communicate.
2.  Allowing for individual creativity in distinct and personal ways through the basics of the batik process, or the painting process, and how it is possible to combine the two when planning a large mural.  

List some subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to your potential residency work.
Biology, Math, History, Earth Science, Idaho History.  Most subject areas can be adapted in some way.

References

Bobbi Kelly
Watercolor artist/Retired Art Teacher
517 N. Garfield
Moscow, Idaho 83843

Tom Bennick
Papermaker/Retired Teacher/Artist in Residence
68 S.E. Sunrise Drive
Mountain Home, Idaho 83647

Janet Choate
Professional Artist/Retired Art Teacher
5102 E. Fescue Drive
Boise, Idaho 83716