The Wizard of Art

They say...

"They say", there's always a "they" having something to say. Is that not true?

But "they" say, you should write what you know. I know a lot of little things and some big things but one thing for sure I know is that I have a lot more to learn. I wish I had the attitude I have now about learning when I was in grammar school. I didn't feel any true inspiration from any teacher in grammar school. There were a few good, kind teachers who made some of my lessons fun, but again none who inspired me, made me thirsty for knowledge and what I could do with that knowledge.

Though I didn't know it so much in high school, I guess the most inspiring teacher was my art teacher. I always liked her, right from the start, and we became very good friends over the years. She was young, hip and very creative in so many different aspects of art. My music teacher was also an awesome teacher but unfortunately she taught me one of life's tough lesson's, one that I still have to remind myself of to this day, life's not fair. She had her favorites. I'm not saying any of these girls that she chose over me weren't talented, but I wasn't one of her favorites. Being a bit of a mischievous student I'm sure added to me not being one of her favorites but I know it was more than that. Let's just say that she taught me a little more than life's not fair.

But my art teacher wasn't like that. I think being so creative she saw a chance in all of us, appreciated our individuality, never criticized, just taught us with patience and shared what she knew.

I remember making Christmas stamps. Not stamps like you would paste on an envelope. A rubber stamp, that you rub into an ink pad and then stamp an image onto paper. It was so much fun just learning how to make the stamp. It didn't matter that my stamp wasn't perfect, the whole process of learning and creating was fun, made me want to know what else this wonderful teacher knew.

We made glasses out of bottles. First learning how to cut glass, again just learning the process so interesting. We cut the glass and then used sand paper to smooth out the cut edges, glued the bottom half of the bottle as the stem to the bottom half of the bottle turned upside down.

We all created beautiful glasses, each unique. I remember us all being so impressed that we were able to do this, with what we had created.

She is a photographer and taught many of the girls so much about photography, before the digital age, when you had to develop film in a dark room, again sharing more of her knowledge along with passion and you felt it in all her lessons. I know one student for sure who took it further, is a photographer today and credits Mrs. Arena with giving her the extra inspiration to follow her dream.

Denise Arena still teaches to this day. She owns a cool shop in the Great Kills area of Staten Island, New York. It's called of course The Wizard of Art. And a wizard she is. I stopped by a couple of times to say hello in the last few years and just the feel of the shop reminded me of my art classes from long ago. One of the days I stopped by she was creating a centerpiece, all sneakers. Though she didn't use real sneakers, her design was original, and I think whoever bought that was astonished with what she could do with their request to create something artsy out of sneakers.

I was in the Glee Club in high school and Mrs. A, led the stage crew in designing the best scenery for our shows, again making even the least artistic person feel like they had created a masterpiece or at the very least, having been a part of creating a work of art.

Again she has a great art shop in Great Kills, teaches art classes for many ages and does all kinds of stuff for parties. Here are just a couple samples of her amazing work. A coach entrance way a la Cinderella and the dais and table settings inside matching. I could just imagine a little girl coming to her party and feeling like a princess. Please check out her web page, if you live in Staten Island, sign your kid up for art lessons, open a wonderful creative world for them.




From what I've heard you can also have children's birthday parties there for your little artists. What a great party, having fun and bringing home a unique work of art. Spending a day using their imagination and creativity.

If you're having a party, any theme you can come up with, she will astonish you with her designs! Another great woman to be admired! I'm lucky to have had a teacher like her.

One of my nieces is a teacher and though of course I'm prejudiced, I believe she has a passion to teach children and will be talked about by her students years from now. She's looked up to by her nieces, her younger cousins and has patience with them, she's interested in what they have to say. All the initial signs of a good teacher in my book.

And I will say teachers are underpaid. I don't care if they have the summers off from work. They teach our children. Shape our future. They deserve so much more. And tenure? Well I believe if you continue to earn and deserve that tenure it should be yours, but if not, there's so many hungry, out-of-work teachers who are just waiting to have a chance to be the wizards in some student's life. I say give them the chance if a tenured teacher isn't pulling their weight.

Just my opinion...