It has been a delight to share with my students the incredible resource of people. Over the years, I’ve had the great privilege of connecting them with inspiring individuals such as Lois Ehlert, Dave Nice, Gregory Martens, Colette Odya Smith, and—as seen in this “Behind the Professor” sketch—Dr. Gaylund Stone. There’s something powerful about the presence of someone who lives their craft with humility and depth. In moments like these, my students are reminded that more is often caught than taught.
I am an art teacher with a master’s degree—trained by brilliant professors who believed that art could do more than decorate walls. I offer safe spaces for teenagers to grow—nourishing soil where their imaginations can take root.
And yet… I am assigned to hallway duty.
This is compulsory education, after all.
So I sit—posted like a sentinel—watching young lives stream past.
“Get to class,” I say with a smile and a nudge.
The system wants attendance; I’m hungry for presence.
Armed not with a whistle or clipboard, but with a pen—
my scribble’s soft insurgency.
The hallway stretches out like a geometric hymn.
Columns and corners chant structure.
Teenagers swirl past—half-formed galaxies of limbs and laughter—
their orbits chaotic, their gravity pulling time forward.
I begin to draw.
Not their tardiness, but their motion.
A shoulder. A blur of sneakers.
A tilted head chasing freedom.
Feet flickering like seconds.
Each mark a pulse.
Each smudge a breath.
My paper becomes a seismograph of seeing—
trembling gently through the mundane.
This isn’t about making art for a frame or a feed.
It’s about refusing to leak away in the fluorescent hum of obligation.
It’s a quiet mutiny against the clock.
I do this on long car rides, too (passenger side, mind you).
Letting the lines grow wild, jagged, and unapologetic.
Not for polish—
but for presence.
This is how I remember I’m still alive.
Still growing.
Still watching.
Still choosing to see.
Because sometimes mental health looks like
a piece of scrap paper,
a moving pen,
and the simple, sacred act of
marking time with wonder.
Drew this for a professor that mentored me on my first research paper! You can also find me on facebook www.facebook.com/sonialaiart for WIP and updates!
My painting professor drew this diagram on the board and suggested that it is a diagram for a painting. "Begin with large areas, covering the canvas with general colors and shapes. Refine the shapes and begin adding details. Refine the details and work with smaller brushes. When you are adding marks that your viewers would not notice, be done." There is more, but that is enough to ponder for now.
He was passionate about the idea that art in schools is for the growth and development of children, not about the end product. "Drawing makes the mind", he would say. Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten, is the father of art education in schools. Give kids gifts (art supplies), and occupations (assignments), and watch them grow! Fare well Dr. Baker.
Done 2000 with oils on illustration board. This was one of my art college in NYC project assignment that i had to do . The theme for the project was "ludicrous" so from there we had to come up with image towards that vocabulary. First I did a thumbnail of woman combined with motorcycle,but my art professor did not approve of it, so I did my second thumbnail which was the image as you see now ,but I originally had painted her face with eyes and the third on her forehead and when I finished the painting . I showed to my other class professor and one professor recommended me that I should pull the skin over her face and get rid of the eyes so thas what I did to finish the piece. When we to show our final piece in the class almost everybody in my class were saying I am crazy in a good way I hope. Later on back in year 2001 one of the art buyer from Yahoo messenger in art chat room we got to talk about art wanted to see my artwork ,so I showed him some of my oil paintings that I did year 2000 for my class in art college he wanted to buy almost all my oil paintings so he bought the one that you see here and rest of my 2 paintings.
Also I have my 2023 Wall calendar up for sale $19.95 with my artworks through Artwanted.com art community website. Click or copy / paste the link below and would be appreciated if you can support me on the calendar
https://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=115637&Tab=Calendar
Violet from a timeline where she failed to atop the professor from releasing the mad God. The fight is endless against the Darkness, and she is forged in war.
Meet Professor A. Fox. He's constantly experimenting to find the best way of travelling between parallel universes.
My entre for the Fox Adventurer #characterdesignchallenge
This is a 19 in by 24 in oil painting on Bristol paper. I love this piece because of the textures and the bright but muted colors. I did this in 2019 in the spring at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The professor always pronounced "fruit" in a very bazaar way. It was a great class overall.
Professor Abb Sunkin. Chief experimentalist, faithful servant to the president. Known as the final-lab executioner for my cell-mates, or « that asshole » – as I overheard – for the experimentalists under his command.
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