HOBUS – Ms. Sierra Clark

Ms.+Clark+poses+for+a+portrait+for+one+of+her+students+to+express+her+creativity+in+one+of+Ms.+Clarks+art+classes.+%28Photo+Courtesy+of+Dev+Maharaj%29

Ms. Clark poses for a portrait for one of her students to express her creativity in one of Ms. Clarks art classes. (Photo Courtesy of Dev Maharaj)

Ms. Sierra Clark, Fine Arts Faculty

 

I have been teaching at Benjamin for one year and about eight months. My favorite part of the school is the Fine Arts department because I love the comradery, the collaboration, and the competition where we recently just gained our scholastic art result; I love the challenge here. 

 

I have a lot of fun classes here, some are smaller than others, and the relationship seems to be more intimate the smaller they are. I have some students I have been teaching since their freshmen year, so I have a lot of fun memories but none in specific but just a great experience in general. What I like most about teaching about art is stimulating their creativity and honing their strengths. 

 

Last year I had a student who really loved using colored pencils, and that ended up leading her to win a Scholastic Gold Key Award last year– which is a very prestigious national award–, as well as getting a 5 on the AP Art Exam; she is an amazing art student. I love when students find their strengths and capitalize on them. For example, I have a student this year who really likes working with graphite and also earned a Gold Key on something she did on her own. 

 

I love to teach drawing more so than anything, drawing is how I fell in love with art, I think drawing is a really underrated skill that you can have, but I always tell my students, “If you know how to draw you’ll be better equipped to learn how to paint, so it is really essential to slow down and learn how to draw.”