The Art Teacher Cartoon

Click picture to read the small print.


When I was an artist in residence for elementary schools, I would travel not only from school to school, but also from classroom to classroom. One of my fellow art teachers called it schlepping from class to class. Our lessons were 45min long, so we had to have everything totally prepared to set up, explain the lesson, pass things out, help with the lesson, clean, pack and off to the next class with only minutes to spare. Dealing with paints, glue, printing supplies, pallets, brushes, containers and more made this a very challenging task! Many times we would be going into an entirely different grade level from the last, so there would be a whole different set of supplies for a completely different lesson! We could do up to six classes a day! That's really pushing it. Wow, hats off to all the art teachers out there still doing this!!

The artists in residence would get together for meetings to share stories, lessons and sometimes gifts. This was one of the gifts I made. One of my schools gave me a roll of this heavy brown paper they wanted to get rid of--(that's another thing, I had a garage just full of supplies I'd collected over the years--too much!)

I made the folders, then tried creating a cartoon. This is what I came up with. You might have to click on the picture to read all the little things the characters are saying. In the end, the art teacher, while soaking in the tub, is reading a thank you card from one of her classes. Aww! I think that's the only part that didn't come out too clear.

I've been in very many classrooms with very many teachers and I'd have to say that most of the teachers, (maybe 90%), conduct their classes beautifully. They are caring, thoughtful and always have the child's welfare in mind.
So...I apologize for depicting the teacher as lazy and not very caring, hence the name, Mrs. Hohumm. She's drinking her coffee while on the computer (hey! that's me!) I put Mrs. Hohumm in for comic effect because all the art teachers have experienced that teacher who's in the 10%, not a fun class to try to teach. If the teacher doesn't have a handle on the class there's not much hope for a visiting art teacher!

At the time of this creation, I was burnt out and at the end of my teaching career, but I DO still love children's art work!