Over
the years, Ms. Stemple and I have kept in touch. After retiring from the
Florida public schools, where she started three different art programs (the
commercial art program at the International Fine Arts College, and the magnet
art programs at Southwood Middle School and Coral Reef High School), she moved
to Austin, Texas to be near her children and grandchildren. Around this time,
several of my good friends also moved to Austin, so I’ve been lucky enough to visit
this liberal Texas oasis several times over the years. I always make a point to
spend a few days with Ms. Stemple, catching up with my friend, and each time, I
am more and more amazed by this woman. To me, she was just my photo teacher,
but to the rest of the world, she was a great artist.
During
this last visit, I learned that she received an Olympic medal for creating
glass windows that were showcased during the 1980 Olympic games in Lake,
Placid, NY. She also created a book of photography with her students after
Hurricane Andrew called “The Eye of the Storm through the Eye of the Child”,
which was presented to President Clinton. I found out that she won many
scholarships to study art abroad, including at the Villa Schiffanoia in
Florence, and she was the VP of an art company. I took this opportunity to ask
her a few questions about her mentors and her work as an art educator. Here’s a
peek into our conversation…
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| Olympic medal! |
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| Ms. Stemple meeting President Clinton |
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| Original Abstract by Ms. Stemple! |
How
did you get interested in art?
In
grade school, the art teacher came and the regular teacher left. She used to
draw something on the board and whoever copied it best got the best grade. But I
just started drawing everything in sight. And this teacher let me do whatever I
wanted to do, which gave me a lot of confidence. She could have squelched me,
but she encouraged my creativity instead. That’s the best thing a teacher can
do. Creativity is what makes a person unique.
Who
are some of your favorite teachers?
Ranulph
Bye (transparent watercolor), Dolya Goutman (oil painting, drawing), Leonard
Nelson (printmaking, drawing), Hoffman (photography), John Hanlen (painting,
drawing), George Sklar (heavy-duty drawing). In Florence, Sister Giotto Moots was
very encouraging. Steven Posen from Yale said all my abstracts were ugly, but I
knew they were true. If they were ugly, that was the way he perceived it. Does
anyone really do ugly on purpose? When he found out I was married and going to
have babies, he wouldn’t talk to me. He said I wasn’t an artist anymore.
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| Portrait of Ms. Stemple by fellow artist |
What
mediums have you taught?
I’ve
taught photography, sculpture, encaustic wax emulsion, ink drawing, oil, watercolor,
drawing, furniture design. It’s hard to say what I haven’t taught. I don’t care
what you give me. Put me on the beach and I’ll play with the sand.
You’ve
taught at colleges and art schools. You designed the curriculum for the art
programs at both Southwood Middle and Coral Reef High School, and you taught at
each for 15 years. How do you feel about your work as an educator?
I never took an education course in my life by choice.
I never wanted to be a teacher. I never had a garden, never wanted to grow
anything. Teaching was planting a seed and watching it grow. What a heady
experience. I got hooked. I’d been written up on interior design in NY Magazine.
I’d done art for commissions. I had plans to run my own business. But the joy
of watching my students far exceeded any joy I ever experienced marketing my
own work. I found out I loved teaching. I really believed—if you can’t do it,
teach it. Then I found out there’s a vocation called teaching. I fell in love with
my students. My greatest joy are my kids – my own and my students.
*
The teaching doesn’t stop. These days, she does artwork with her grandkids and teaches painting in the community. She spent a morning teaching me a few watercolor techniques while I was in town. It was hard!!!! I have so much respect for that art form now! And I continue to feel so lucky to have such a passionate, patient, and encouraging teacher as Ms. Stemple in my life!
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| Original Artwork by Colette Stemple |
