Q & A with Franklin Visual Art Teachers
by Christina (Cecil) Chacón (‘98)
In this edition of the Quaker Times, we are pleased to feature the Franklin High School Art Department Faculty.
1) Please include a short bio and tell us a little bit about yourselves:
John Dunkerley: I was born in Nashville, TN and lived there through high school. Arrived in Seattle in 1997 after 4 years of liberal arts college in rural Maine, looking for community and wilderness. I studied and worked in commercial art (graphic design, illustration, animation studios) for 6 years before getting the job at Franklin in 2004. I’ve continued to work as an artist, showing paintings at the Linda Hodges Gallery and the Seattle Art Fair. Most recently, I created an online drawing tutorial series for the UW’s Burke Museum called “Drawing Wild Washington” and have made a series about public art for the Seattle Channel’s “Art Zone.”
Stacy Schierholz: I grew up in a military family, moving from base to base. My father retired from the Army when I was in high school, while we were stationed near Indianapolis, Indiana. Subsequently, I was able to attend all four years of high school at the same school and went on to attend Indiana University’s Herron School of Art, where I received my Bachelor of Fine Art with degrees in both Painting and Printmaking. I moved to Seattle in 2005 and worked odd jobs while maintaining a studio practice. I started volunteering at a women’s domestic violence shelter, teaching Art and Art Therapy to the kids there, and discovered how much I loved making art collaboratively with young people. I received my Masters in Teaching from Seattle University in 2010 and, after teaching for a couple of years in the Mukilteo School district, joined Franklin in 2012.
Alex Ng (‘06): Hi there! My name is Alex Ng. Students call me Mr. Alex. I was born in Seattle, on Beacon Hill, in the 98118 zip code. I graduated from Franklin in 2006 and taught here for the 2016-2017 school year. I then worked at The Center School for many years teaching Beginning Drawing and Painting, Advanced Drawing and Painting, AP Studio Art, and Sculpture. Along with teaching, I was a staff adviser for the student clubs Racial Justice Alliance (RJA) and Art Club. This year (2021-2022) I am returning to Franklin to continue doing the work I love: teaching art and teaching students. I have a B.A. in interdisciplinary Visual Arts and English Literature and a Master’s in Teaching degree.
2) What was your high school art learning experience like?
Dunkerley: My high school was very unique: all boys, 150 years old, southern, almost 100% white, and conservative. The writer of the film ‘Dead Poets’ Society’ went to my high school. One of the only places I felt inspired, unsurprisingly, was in the art classroom. Everything else was teacher-driven, high pressure, competitive, grades-obsessed, and very monolithic. There was often only ONE way to do something right, and there was near complete homage to the classics, European society, grammar rules, and lectures/note-taking. I definitely learned how to write, think critically, and speak the “King’s English,” be a workaholic, and rebel against social norms, although sometimes I think the greatest lessons I learned from high school weren’t ones the teachers and school hoped I’d learn.
Schierholz: I was lucky to attend a high school with a large visual arts program (five art teachers!). I took classes in Ceramics, (film) Photography, Graphic Design, Drawing and Painting, and Art History. There was one teacher in particular who inspired me to pursue art and art education. He created a classroom that was an authentic studio experience, where students had agency to move about the space, experiment with materials, explore their ideas and collaborate. These are the conditions I try to create in my own classroom.
Ng: This is a fun question for me because Mr. Dunkerley was one of my high school art teachers! My high school art career began with John’s predecessor, Becky Brenner, who was an amazing teacher and a great influence on me. I always knew I wanted an arts education, even when I was unsure of where it would lead me. I was John’s student in his first year of teaching and we have remained friends to this day. Across my entire high school art education, I appreciated the freedom I was given to explore my interests and express my vision.
3) How does your own personal teaching style resemble that of your former teachers and how does it differ?
Dunkerley: I’ve been evolving my teaching technique for 17 years now, mostly AWAY from the skills-specific, teacher-centric model I learned indirectly by being taught that way, to a much more student-focused, process-oriented model. While technical skills ARE important, the grand majority of students only ever have one semester of art, and I’ve found that teaching more general creative thinking skills and processes is more applicable to them than having rudimentary skills in charcoal rendering, etc. I offer skills instruction but no longer base the assignments on it. I’m not sure that many of my high school teachers did much evolving of their curriculum over the years.
Schierholz: Having had many art teachers over the years, I can say teaching styles vary widely. My teacher style has evolved over the years to become more focused on process and less on product. Product focused instruction, which encompassed many of my early art experiences, were instructor led, step-by-step assignments where technical skills were centered and everyone’s project looked the same. Process focused instruction is student centered and starts by asking students what they want to say/communicate then makes room for students to explore, experiment, collaborate and reflect.
Ng: I find comparisons not very useful when it comes to teaching. Teaching is a deeply personal practice and each teacher’s practice tends to reflect their personality, style, and values. I go to work (or log onto my computer) every day with the mindset to help students succeed. As a teacher, everything I do, every norm, every assignment, every project is designed to help students learn and grow as artists and people. I try to emphasize social justice and ethnic studies in my teaching and have been increasing my in-class focus on these areas over the years. The deeper I go into my teaching career, the more interested I have become in changing my teaching practices to better reflect my values of community, chill, and creativity.
4) How do you feel art has evolved in your time teaching?
Dunkerley: For sure, when I started in 2004, there were no smartphones, social media, or free shareable art-making platforms. Accessibility to high production technology has enabled students to create and share in ways unimaginable to me in high school, or even the beginning of my teaching career. I’ve gone from doing massive real-time drawing demonstrations on giant pads or transparency machines, to doing it on a document camera with a projector screen, to posting videos to the cloud for students to consume at their own time and pace. It’s been a complete revolution, and it’s helped bring free tools to students that used to only be available in professional studios that had the money to afford them.
Schierholz: I think the Internet and smartphones have dramatically changed art. Visual culture used to come in small, digestible bites with context (museums, books, print advertising, etc.). Now people are bombarded with visual imagery. Images from around the world, from every culture and time period without context: mash-ups, recycled imagery, imagery made from every conceivable material and technology, memes, gifs and on and on. Visual culture, which used to evolve slowly and regionally, is now global and moves (literally) at the speed of light. I can’t decide if this helped or harmed art (both making and viewing)…I’m sure the answer is somewhere in-between, but it has certainly gotten a lot harder to get and hold someone’s attention.
Ng: In my experience the rise of digital media has created new, mostly online art making communities where young people are incredibly active. This means many students now enter the classroom with their own art background that they bring to the table. At the same time, we always have students who feel shy about art making or judge themselves harshly for their perceived artistic shortcomings or simply do not see themselves as artists. My message is simple: art is for everyone. Within the teaching profession, I believe art instruction is moving away from top-down instruction and more towards empowering student creativity and expression. I favor more student-centered approaches to teaching, which necessitate changes in how I teach and my overall role in the classroom.
5) Do you feel there is anything about the Franklin Art experience that sets it apart from other schools?
Dunkerley: I don’t think I have enough experience with the programs at other schools to definitively compare them, but I know that we have a high proportion of students taking art classes for the first time in their educational experience. Working with them and seeing lights turn on and new directions realized in their relationship to creative expression makes the arts experience at FHS special from my point of view.
Schierholz: Of course, but I’m biased! In all honesty though, any program is going to have strengths and weaknesses, and how students experience a program will be influenced by a lot of different factors. Because we have a focus on student voice, and our students don’t exist anywhere else, THEY are the ones that set the Franklin art experience apart from other schools. But again, I’m biased.
Ng: Seeing as I am new/not-so-new, I look forward to discovering this for myself and personally contributing to making the Franklin art program a unique and valuable experience for all students.
6) How do you envision the Franklin Art Department evolving over the next 5-10 years?
Dunkerley: I want to maintain our commitment to teaching students where they’re at, being a department that fosters relationships with students and allows them a time during the day to relax, have fun, be expressive, and explore their identities. As for evolution, we just jumped light years ahead by hiring a new teacher, and one as amazing as Mr. Alex, at that.
Schierholz: I am so excited that Alex Ng has returned to teach at Franklin. With three visual art teachers, the opportunity for students to take art (and have different experiences in art classes) has expanded. This has also allowed us to have smaller class sizes, which will in-turn give us more time to work with students individually and give more personalized feedback. I also think the three of us have very similar ideas/philosophies around art education. We all have a desire to foster creative/divergent thinking in our classrooms and to create space where students can explore their identities and use their (artistic) voices to shape and change culture and society.
Ng: For my part, I hope to make ethnic studies an essential part of how I teach visual arts. In the next few years, my vision is for ethnic studies and visual arts to co-exist in a seamless fashion in all of my classes. I have been on my own ethnic studies journey for 4 years now, learning from experienced ethnic studies educators, doing lots of reading, writing, and reflecting, changing my teaching practices, and learning from my students. I am an active member of Washington Ethnic Studies Now as both a contributor and learner. I believe visual arts, when taught in an approachable fashion, is an inherently empowering experience for students. Similarly, ethnic studies is, in part, about developing students’ abilities to understand and challenge systems of oppression and histories of harm while also doing the critical self-work that leads to liberation and self-actualization.
7) What has art given to you personally, and how do you feel it enriches the lives of your students?
Dunkerley: Art has enabled me to notice the visual intrigue available every second of every day in the world around me…colors, patterns, lighting, compositions, and contrasts. It seems like such a basic thing, but so many go through life without paying that much attention to its inherent visual beauty. Art has given me a voice to help process my own frustrations or revelations about modern life. It’s also given me purpose- even the most trivial of creative projects fills me with feelings of meaning and accomplishment that can outweigh the daily input of negative news and experiences. I hope that art enriches the lives of students by giving them a voice to express things that are often difficult to put into words. I hope it allows them to SEE and appreciate the rich visual world around them. I hope it allows them to have a therapeutic escape into a world of their own making. I hope it gives them a sense of pride in craft and purpose, whether it becomes a lifelong hobby, or a career.
Schierholz: Putting something into the world that did not exist before and would not exist without you is profoundly satisfying. The act of making is profoundly satisfying. Little kids understand art making intuitively. They know the joy of creating something through play and experimentation and are excited to share what they’ve done as a way of connecting and communicating with others. As we get older, and have different demands and expectations placed upon us, we start to lose this gift. The art room helps resurface these abilities and allows space for students to reflect about themselves, their experiences, and their place in the world.
Ng: Art is life. It is all around us. Beyond sitting down to paint or draw, I find myself making creative decisions all day, interacting with art, consuming creative media, etc. Art has the potential to help students better understand themselves and gives students a language to express themselves. I feel like no life is complete without art.
8) What does teaching at Franklin mean to you?
Dunkerley: It means connection to the broader world- a vehicle for building relationships with people who are not like me in many ways and having a variety of perspective-giving experiences as a result: different ages, cultures, races, education levels, personality types, subject matters, abilities, beliefs, points-of-view, and gender expressions. Franklin means community- a place where I can learn and contribute in many diverse ways.
Schierholz: Teaching at Franklin IS what teaching means to me. What I mean is, if I wasn’t teaching at Franklin I don’t think I would be teaching at all. Having been inside many high schools, as a student, observer, and teacher, the only one that ever felt like it “fit” was Franklin. There are many factors that contribute to this but by far the leading factor is the students themselves. They are amazing, complex, inspiring, hilarious, hard working, compassionate, honest and brilliant. I look forward to seeing them each day. I would like to say THANK YOU to the Alumni Association. About five years ago the Alumni Association awarded me funding to purchase a new kiln. You literally saved the Ceramics program. Ceramics classes are by far the most requested classes at Franklin, so the students’ thank you as well.
Ng: Returning to teach at Franklin after attending and graduating from FHS as a student, doing my student-teaching at FHS, and completing my first year of teaching for Seattle Public Schools at FHS many years ago is very meaningful for me. Although I have been fortunate to travel globally and live and work overseas and teach and live in other areas of Seattle, my heart has never strayed far from the neighborhoods I grew up in.