Monthly Conversations

Interviews with Social Artists, Uncommon Heroes

September 20, 2012

From the Editor

Mary Stein

Welcome to newsletter issue #24. How can I find for myself a place that feels right, a place where work and joy and growth are all possible? It.s a question that is worth asking and one that makes connections among the pieces in this newsletter. [more]

More Conversations

• Susan Vorbeck: Two Childhood Stories
• John Shirley: Courage of Consciousness
• Ron Hobbs: Upward Mobility

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Bonnie Wells

I remember bringing my textile work to a painting teacher, who I respected and admired. He looked at me and said, 'You're painting.' I wondered, does that mean I should be painting on canvas and not in a textile class? But it also made me realize I was practicing fine art on a textile medium, the medium that I most wanted to work with. But he was of the '50s generation of painters. He thought I should be out there stretching canvas. I was actually more interested in doing what women have been doing with their hands for hundreds and thousands of years. It was what I was drawn to and what I liked the most.

James Opie: A High School Teacher

The path to my position at Shade was not straightforward. Having graduated from Ohio University, by summer I was not only married, but also awakening to the realization that an actual job needed to be found. (Getting occupation and matrimony mixed-up chronologically is not an invention of contemporary American culture.) Speaking with a friend, I confessed my dilemma: a college degree in hand, I had never thought about what to do for a living. My friend remarked that smaller schools out in the county were always desperate to hire teachers in August and early September. 'You just need walk down Court Street to the county superintendent.s office and sign up.'