Viewing Art in a Different Way.

Laura Sweeney

November 2, 2009

“Teaching was a logical way to make a living as an artist,” said Rachel Breen, an art teacher at Anoka Ramsey Community College at the Coon Rapids campus.

At first Breen was inspired to become an artist. Teaching was a way to keep in contact with other artists while still thinking about the relationship between form and content.

Art has taught Breen many lessons, “Sometimes visual thinking can be a better way to understand, analyze, and communicate about things.”

So what does Breen plan on teaching her students? “ There are so many things I want to teach my students, in a global sense I want to teach them to access art, to understand it enough to appreciate it even if they don’t like it, to be able to extract meaning and thereby enjoy what it provides to the richness of life. In a more local sense, I want to teach them enough about how to work with medium that they can express themselves with confidence and skill.”

Breen has not always been an art teacher. In fact she worked as a community organizer for the first 20 years of her work life. “I am a nontraditional student and went back to graduate school in my 40’s.”

“Conveying ideas in a complex yet accessible ways,” Breen says of what she wishes she could be great at.

Breen had dreams of becoming a famous artist but insists,” I’m pretty realistic.”

If Breen was not an art teacher should would be a travel journalist.” I love to travel.”

“I like abstraction the best,” Breen says of what she likes to paint most often.

In high school art was Breen’s favorite class along with English.

Breen had her first experience teaching art in graduate school, she has been hooked ever since.

“William Kentridge,” answers Breen of who her favorite artist is. William Kentridge is an artist from South Africa who uses charcoal. “Which is my favorite medium; He draws representational but also erases his drawing and then redraws on top of drawings that have been erased. The meaning of his work comes, not only from the imagery he draws but also from "how" he draws. The process itself embeds meaning into his work. I am fascinated by this and try to do the same in my own work.”

Breen likes to switch things up when she is doing her work. She likes to try new things and never is disappointed in her piece. Breen always sticks with what she is working on and never gives up on a piece until she is finished with it. Breen sees art in a different way than most people. She looks at it in a different state of mind; she has knowledge of the work and can see the beauty of it.

Even though Breen only took teaching art as a way to be an artist while having a steady job, her students thank her because they know that she has impacted their life in a way another teacher couldn’t.