Welcome to Mrs. Sexton's Webpage

Hello Artists!

I am teaching Exploring Art, Intermediate Art, Advanced Art, and Ceramics for the 2023-2024 school year. Please check your Google Classroom for announcements, assignments, links, and resources. 

Be sure to check out Artsonia to view student artwork and purchase products printed with student artwork. A portion of the money you spend comes back to the Art department. 

A Message from Me

(this is a snippet from my writing below)

Art is an Answer

The therapeutic nature of artmaking is undeniable and powerful. Artmaking is more important now more than ever before. We struggle with many new challenges with our hearts and minds. Art can provide a healthy outlet for us to explore these obstacles and find solace or even solutions. Currently, following the Pandemic and with the trends in technology and addiction, we are faced with an overwhelming lack of in-person connection and uncertainties. Many people have turned to creative activities and this is no surprise to me. The beauty of Art is not just in what is seen. It is also in what is experienced, documented, felt, and healed. 

Interested in my view on Art Education and need some reading material during some downtime? Continue reading! 

Be well- <3 Mrs. Sexton

Right now in Art Education

The hot topic in Art Education right now is "Choice-Based Art Ed." While reading up and investigating this trending idea, I realized...this is already happening in our program! I was delighted to see that teachers are incorporating more student choice and theme-based units into their curriculum. They discuss incorporating environments and units that foster artistic thinking. As a department, we feel strongly that this has been our Art Education Philosophy all along. So, as you may have probably guessed, I LOVE this mentality behind the new path in Art Education.

In my classroom, it is my goal that all students understand the following:

Art is an Answer

The therapeutic nature of artmaking is undeniable and powerful. Artmaking is more important now more than ever before. We struggle with many new challenges with our hearts and minds. Art can provide a healthy outlet for us to explore these obstacles and find solace or even solutions. Currently, with the Pandemic, we are faced with an overwhelming lack of in-person connection and uncertainties. Many people have turned to creative activities and this is no surprise to me. The beauty of Art is not just in what is seen. It is also in what is experienced, documented, felt, and healed. 

Artists Observe and Respond

For many years, Art Educators have been using the knowledge that the right side of the brain is used more when working with art as a tool for teaching drawing. I strongly believe that this is still a wonderful concept that may be used even further. Understanding how we, as individuals, see and respond may allow art students the opportunity to set themselves up for success when drawing and understand what changes to make to how they are seeing the world around them in order to change their results.

Artists Steal...and Then Make It Their Own

I had a professor once that told us that all artists steal- we are at that time where all basic ideas have been executed. The subtle differences that you do are what make it YOURS. Looking at other artists in history, distant and contemporary gives us ideas. Being a hermit in the Art World will not help. Artistic thinking is fostered in my room through exposure to other artists' work and practices.

Artists are Self-Learners

I am the first to admit that I do not know EVERYTHING about ALL art and artists. Exploring and creating Art is a life long process. It is a lifestyle. The tools and concepts taught in the classroom are provided to our students to enable them to be able to handle their own investigative processes in the future. If there is a question that I cannot answer, I encourage students to use what they know so far to find it.

Artists Solve Problems

You will never hear me say "I can't" in my classroom. At least, I try to make sure of that! Artists are known to think outside of the box and find a solution. When told "No" to an idea, I usually have to try it and see it to believe it. It is the visual learner in us!

Artists Learn from Other Artists

Keeping up with my own artistic practice is very important to my profession. I always have something that I am working on in the room. I always share my sketchbooks. I always find a little time to work alongside my students in the studio. There is this creative energy that passes to them and...IT WORKS!

Artists Dance in Strides, Not Steps

While I do make my own work and share it with the students, I rarely do teacher samples. Students tend to think that the sample is the end all and be all of project perfection and COPY. Here, we give students the process, the material, the inspiration, sometimes the concept and then set them loose. We do not do "Step by Step and Make it Look Just Like Mine" here.