Caleb Kimbro

Writer

As the canvas of 2019 hangs on the wall and 2020 blooms in front of the students of Marlow High School, starting the new year with exposure to different teachings is a practice that the art department at Marlow High School is putting into practice.

With the help of the Chisholm Trail Art Council (CTAC), professional artists are enlightening the Marlow High School Art Team with their point of view on different types of art.

The CTAC searches across Oklahoma to give students a broader range of teaching aspects rather than the standard one teacher experience.

The person responsible for the spread of these ideas is Executive Director Darcy Reeves.

Describing the benefits of having guest teachers, Reeves explained why they have been invited to teach the MHS Art class.

 “We are trying to expose the students to new opportunities,” said Reeves. “With a new teacher teaching them, it is showing them a new perspective compared to how Mr. Brantley teaches the class every day.”

With the help of Mrs. Reeves, MHS art teacher Arlyn Brantley invited retired art teacher Dan Hazel to help teach his pottery class.

 “All the time I have spent teaching has been very rewarding,” Hazel said. “It is a privilege to be trusted to teach children, especially when it is art.”

With the return of Hazel as a helper for Brantley, the current art teacher expressed great reverence for the retired teacher who previously served in his position.

“Mr. Hazel is an example of someone who has really perfected their skill in teaching. His area of interest is ceramics,” said Brantley. “That is an area I really do not have a lot of background in so having him show his method for pottery is more beneficial than me showing the students how it is done.”

A week after Hazel’s tenure, Reeves introduced a new face to help teach the MHS Art class: Kelly Pennington, a retired art teacher from Ada.

Pennington’s main focus while teaching Marlow was for students to learn how to use the energy that a model produces when drawing a figure.

“We’re trying to get the energy within what’s underneath the skin of our model,” said Pennington. “It’s a part of the first step when drawing figures.”

With the main goal of the CTAC being to enlighten students of different teachings, having workers who implement what they learned in school would expose students to endless possibilities they have outside of college or high school.