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Michele Motil, McCluer High School

Art Basics, Drawing I & II, Sculpture I & II, Advanced Art Studio, AP Art Studio

“A home away from home”: usually it’s the language of hotel commercials or vacation-spot brochures. But Michele Motil uses it to describe her art classroom.
 
Most of my students who want to pursue art as a career have very strong support from their family, which is great, but the parents aren't artists,” says Motil, who credits her own parents and teachers with putting her on her current path.
 
So she fills the role that her teachers filled for her: picking up where her students' parents leave off, offering the guidance and expertise her studio training has given her. She welcomes her young artists at any time of day – before and after school, between classes, during study hall. Even during her interview, at one point she put down the phone and audibly asked a student who'd just wandered in: “Where did you come from?”
“This is where really talented students are going to work through their projects and develop their skills,” she says. “My colleagues and I want to be sure they have the best resources we can give them. Officially we trade days in the after-school art lab, but usually, all four of us stay.”

“There are different levels of success” for students, says Motil, who aims to reach every level. “Some will come to me and say 'I don't know why I'm here; I have to take art to graduate.' I try to help them acquire skills and find something in themselves to express, something they may not have ever known they had. Others will go on to some of the best art institutes in the country.”

Either way, Motil says, “I want them to enjoy it. I want to see smiles coming down the hall.” She wants her students to make themselves at home with art.