The Power of Teachers
by Johnathan Carrera
I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Since a young age, art teachers have had a tremendous impact on me. In kindergarten, we had a class project where our teacher gave each of us a random letter of the alphabet and then we had to draw somThething that started with that letter. I was given the letter “O,” so I drew a purple octopus with pink suction cups, a sea floor with textured sand, seashells, little fish, and bubbles with reflective details. I still have vivid memories of drawing the octopus, and the parent teacher conference where the teacher showed my mom. My mom said, “My son drew this!?” My teacher told her I could be a really talented artist, and to encourage me to draw more. And that’s exactly what my mom did. She always supported my art and made sure I had all the supplies I needed. When it was time to go to high school, she took me to my art school auditions, which led me to study AP Illustration at the High School of Art and Design (HSAD).
After high school I knew I wanted to continue learning art and illustration, but I come from a low-income family, so art college was out of the question. Luckily, my art teacher at HSAD connected me with Denise Greene at the Art Students League of New York. I received a Seeds of the League Scholarship, which enabled me to take classes at the League and hone my technical skills as an artist.
While at the League, I studied with instructors Wendy Shalen, Ellen Eagle, and Nicki Orbach. I took Wendy’s class for years, and she showed me how to be a diverse artist working in several mediums. I later became her class monitor, a role which allowed me to practice being an art teacher: setting up and breaking down a room, and speaking to students, especially middle schoolers and highschoolers, without discouraging them while encouraging their growth.
Now, I continue to teach and work as an artist. I’ve been a Seeds of the League Teaching Artist for about two years now. I’ve taught at NYC public schools and community centers, for after school art lessons and summer classes. As an artist, I’ve created commissioned soft pastel art pieces and oil paintings. I became a tattoo artist and got to tattoo many tourists, so now I can say that my art is around the worldAfter high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do besides that I wanted to create art. I’m happy that I’ve found many ways to make this dream come true. As a Teaching Artist, I get to shape the minds of young artists and remind them what they can achieve in their art.
You can view more of Johnathan’s art @johncarrera.art on Instagram
Maria in Lace, soft pastel on tone paper, 2017.
Students in Johnathan’s class.
