Advice to Young Artists: “Just Create”
Ewing High School Class of 2019 alum, Ellen Pietsch, whose artwork was included in the Phillips' Mill Youth Art Exhibition for four years, is now seeking a career in secondary art education.
Ellen Pietsch remembers going to see her older sister Alexandra’s artwork on display at the Phillips’ Mill Youth Art Exhibition and thinking, “Wow, the artwork here is so out of the box, things I haven’t seen before. Paper cutouts in a shadow box, the color and detail in paintings. How do people get these ideas?”
She was drawn in, and knew there was something there for her too, although her artwork was just developing. “When I was younger, I was inspired by my sister, who went to art school and is a pastel artist,” she notes. “We both grew up experiencing it together, but we both love art (and do art) in different ways.”
Ellen’s path from wide-eyed younger sister to future secondary art teacher included four years as an exhibitor at the Phillips’ Mill Youth Art Exhibition herself. “I had only seen my artwork on my work desk. It was so different to see it on a wall in a gallery,” she says. “I just felt happy knowing it was there.” She encourages students to submit their work to art shows like the one at Phillips’ Mill, just as her teachers at Ewing High School had encouraged and inspired her.
“I knew that art was in my future,” she says. “I just didn’t know I wanted to be an art teacher until I got to college. It was during lockdown. I kept thinking back to my high school and how great the art teachers were. I changed my major from studio art to art and secondary education.”
Ellen is currently in her fourth year at Caldwell University. She is creating her senior exhibition and plans to “do art on the side” — everything from ceramics and painting to sculpture and collage — but focus her professional life on teaching. “I am going to take a fifth year (of college) and be in the classroom as a student teacher.”
“I knew that art was in my future,” she says. “I just didn’t know I wanted to be an art teacher until I got to college. It was during lockdown. I kept thinking back to my high school and how great the art teachers were. I changed my major from studio art to secondary art and secondary education.”
Ellen is currently in her fourth year at Caldwell University. She plans to “do art on the side” — everything from ceramics and basket weaving to sculpture and collage — but focus her professional life on teaching. “I am going to take a fifth year (of college) and be in the classroom as a student teacher.”
She plans to follow in the footsteps of her own high school art teachers who gave her the freedom and the confidence to explore her own creativity, wherever it takes her. “When I talk to people about art, I hear so many say they can’t see themselves as a visual artist, that they aren’t creative enough. As a teacher, I hope to foster the idea of creativity. Anyone can be creative, no matter how skilled they are,” she says. “My advice to students: just create. The act itself is what is important.”
