Today we will hopefully get to know my friend and fellow artist Erika N. better. Of course, many of you know her as BioArtGal.
Please be aware, all art today belongs to Erika. Please DO NOT pin any of her art from my blog. If you like her art, please visit and/or follow her blog and pin her art there.
Elizabeth: Your blogging profile shows you were a high school biology teacher for
35??? years. I enjoyed seeing your retirement journal. However, the
art is what we know less about. When did you start making art and what did it entail?
Erika:
I taught for 35 years at my last school, and my first year teaching was at a different school, for someone on maternity leave, so that made it a total of 36 years. I made my retirement journal for a couple of reasons. One, I brought home lots of bits and pieces when I cleaned out my work desk, and in many ways that process was quite traumatic.
I think it would have been easier had we not been in the early throngs of covid and I wasn't the only one in that part of the building while cleaning. An empty school is too quiet and a bit like a ghost town.
You can imagine the kids in the hall and half expect one of them to walk in, but of course, when I cleaned out my room, no one was there. And I couldn't throw out those bits and pieces because that felt like I was throwing out a big part of my life. 35 years at a job is a very long time and you do become a part of that place (even though it was the right time to move on to other things).
The other reason I made that journal was to help process leaving that job after 35 years. It was a way to close that door and step out into the future.
And a way so I wouldn't forget those years, but to put them behind me.
Even though my educational background is in biology and later education, I've always loved being crafty and making art. My mother sent me to sewing classes when I was 10 years old, and by the time I was a teenager I used to make a lot of my clothes. But strangely I really don't like making clothes. Clothes making was in a way stressful because you have to be exact about certain things. When I was learning to sew my mom, who was a former elementary school teacher, used to come watch me from behind, and that always stressed me out. Even though I still like to sew,
I'd rather do my messy stitching. Or messy painting or messy whatever. Maybe messy isn't the right word. Maybe I should say less exact
because it is always fun to see what happens if you try something rather than knowing exactly what will occur.
I didn't really focus on any one type of art or craft until my daughter was young and I started scrapbooking.
You have to do something with all those photos you take.
(And I love taking photos. My uncle gave me my first camera when I was 8 and I've been snapping ever since. I may not be the best painter or be able to illustrate books but I can take photos.)
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