I like my job.  I like filling out paperwork.  I like balancing bank accounts to the penny – every day.   I like paying bills, and chatting with my co-workers, and taking a walk after lunch.  I really like writing stock market analysis and company newsletters.  I even like long-term business strategery.

But I LOVE school.  I always have.  And that is no doubt why I continued to go to school long after everyone else stopped.  And why I still take online classes and study French with Rosetta Stone. 

And yet, it could be time for me to stop being a student.  Why?  Because I’m going to be a teacher!  Yay me!  The newest Adjunct Professor at Three Rivers Community College!  History of Women in the Arts, thank you very much.  And you still have time to enroll for the Spring Semester.

One of the reasons I’m excited to teach is that I had the amazing good fortune to work as Richard Mehl’s TA last year in his Visual Languages class for undergraduates.  Richard’s presentations and assignments were creative and difficult, and his students rose to every challenge.  The longer I attended the class, the more I wanted to do the homework.  I didn’t have time to do the homework, and I was supposed to be helping the actual students, but there is no doubt that my work changed due to the exposure I had to Richard’s graphic design/advertising/color theory approach.

I found myself doing more collage, more mixed media, using patterned papers and layering drawing on pattern on pattern.  And every week I thought about what I would have created for class if I had been a student and not the TA.

Richard makes a real difference in the lives of his students.  When we had class critiques, there was excitement in the air.  I hope someday I can be half as good a teacher.  If you want to see what I mean, now you can, because Richard has created an online presentation of his class, which is available through CreativeLive at

https://www.creativelive.com/courses/color-designers-exploration-theory-application-richard-mehl

I cannot recommend this course enough.  I have already told you about Richard’s book Playing With Color (Rockport Publishers, ISBN 978-1-59253-808-9) and I still think it belongs in your art library, but nothing can take the place of hearing him explain the concepts and show examples himself.

Happy New Year!  May you enjoy an inspired 2015!