The creative act of teaching
Wednesday, July 15 — The common thread among this week’s Rough Draft Atlanta Sketchbook stories is the lasting shape that guiding someone else’s work leaves on your own, and the way taking on the charge to teach, support and mentor becomes part of one’s creative practice.
Seventeen years into her own classroom career, artist Jennifer Mack-Watkins is supporting broad access to quality arts education by ensuring those who teach it have the resources, tools and network to make it a viable, rewarding line of work. The daylong arts educator intensive she helped build and host for 40-plus educators at Georgia State recently is an example of that commitment made tangible.
Marc Boyson spent 21 years as a professor and calls his teaching and artmaking a “symbiotic relationship.” Now retired, Boyson’s newest work on view at Kai Lin Art – canvas pieces that mark a shift from his previous laser-etched wood art – represents, in part, an attempt to broaden the scope of his creative conversations.
One created a pathway to give students and educators what she didn’t have. The other built a career on giving, and is only now returning to what’s his.
Who taught you to see the art you love — and who have you taught in return?
—Sherri Daye Scott
Brushes and beginnings
🖌️ Take a look inside the day Jennifer Mack-Watkins built for Georgia’s newest art teachers – needle felting, a Chinese Bamboo 101 brush-painting session, a self-guided EXLAB makerspace tour and career panels on museum education and curriculum writing. Forty-plus educators showed up for all of it.
➡️ Learn what the educators learned.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime
SPONSORED BY THE HIGH MUSEUM
🎨 You’ve seen Amy Sherald’s iconic portrait of Michelle Obama. Now, her largest exhibition to date comes to Atlanta, featuring rarely seen paintings and monumental portraits spanning nearly two decades.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime is now open, bringing one of the leading artists of her generation back to Georgia. Secure your tickets before it’s gone.
Can only make it in the evening? We’ve got you covered. The show stays open after hours every Friday. Grab a drink, snag an exclusive exhibition poster, and explore the galleries at your leisure.
The lessons that linger
🖼️ Marc Boyson spent 21 years teaching art before turning fully to his own. Now retired, he says he’s “looking for ways to broaden that journey and share it with a larger audience” – starting with 11 new canvases at Kai Lin Art.
➡️ Go inside Boyson’s new work.
Art Happenings
💬 Raphael Bahindwa Artist Talk | 4-7 p.m., July 16 | Rialto Center for the Arts.
🎨 Culture Canvas Art Show | 5-10 p.m., July 18 | Ambient + Studio.
🖼️ POORTREAT: Opening Reception | 5-9 p.m., July 18 | Rampant Gallery at Goat Farm (pictured).
🔑 Douglas and Dewey: Arts Alley Open Studio | 6-10 p.m., July 18 | Hapeville Arts Alley.
🛑 #LookUpDecatur Decommissioned Signs Exhibition Opening Reception | 6:30-8:30 p.m., July 19 | Hyatt Cottage at Legacy Park.
Post of the Week
🛸 Mothership landing
Atlanta artist @occasionalsuperstar opens his three-story experiential exhibition on August 13. Commenters are already calling it something Atlanta’s never seen. Believe them.
➡️ See the post.
🖋️ Today’s Sketchbook was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
