Anna Patalano
ANNA PATALANO – MFA in Painting and Drawing,Yale University School of Art; BFA in Painting,Tyler School of Art/ Temple University; Summer Resi- dency, Skowhegan ME with over 20 years of teaching experience. As Associate Professor Fine Arts at the Univ. of Texas at El Paso, taught painting, composition and techniques, color theory, drawing, art appreciation; developed and wrote curricula for fine arts ma- jors from a multi-cultural com- munity, created an honors art program; developed scholarship program in conjunction with Corpus Christi State U. fine arts program. Commissioned portraits in private collections nationwide. She is currently President of the Greenwich Art Society and Co-Director of its Studio School.
"Teaching, for me, involves communicating ideas to the student. With regard to visual art, that means communicating ideas about visual perception and describing the art materials and techniques that can be used to express the interpretation of visual perception. It's about teaching the student how to coordinate the eye, hand, and mind in creating an image. This is a complex process that needs to be simplified in order for the student to "get it." Part of my job as a teacher is to help the student break down the process and understand how it works as a whole.
Teaching fine art requires that the teacher allow the student to develop his or her own unique vision. It's a delicate balancing act that combines the analysis of visual perception and the use of materials and techniques WITH the student's own personal view, both in visual perception and how the materials are handled. Making art is, to a large extent, about individuality of thought and spirit and this is what I try to bring out in the student while teaching the fundamentals of perception and how to translate that through the use of painting materials.
I create an environment in which the individual student feels comfortable expressing their own ideas. How I do that is simply through respect of the individual and being positive about their unique ideas. I do not try to impose my own way of seeing or doing things on to the student but rather strive to support their own visions.
What interests me about art, specifically visual art, is that how we "see" the world often reflects how we think and feel about the world, ourselves, life in general.....all at the same time. The vitality of the creative process that is expressed through making visual art speaks to many levels of thought and emotion. It is a wonderfully interesting proposition to me -- how a single process can encompass thinking, tactility, hope, wonder, emotion, vision, and faith continues to inspire my curiosity and captures my imagination."
