Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jean Reinhold. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I spent 38 years teaching. First in Dade County Public Schools in Miami, Florida, then at a small private school where I started the program for gifted students in University Heights, Ohio. Then I landed at Fernway School in Shaker Heights, OH for the largest hunk of my career, 35 years.

Luckily for me, my job morphed over my career: teacher of gifted students, enrichment teacher, design teacher, district teacher leader and, ultimately, an International Baccalaureate coordinator. Each of those roles afforded extraordinary ways to be creative. From arts-inspired lessons to helping teachers to outline a year of theme driven curriculum and managing different people empathically, leading student mediation, working on projects to boost student achievement in a diverse district. The most directly “artsy” thing I did annually was to direct our 4th grade students in a student-written poetry play. It was the capstone of the end of their elementary experience and always received with a standing ovation. My jobs demanded I be creative in small and large ways. I was lucky.

One of the attributes students develop in an IB school purposefully is being a risk-taker. I took that seriously. How can one guide students to be thinkers, communicators, inquirers and risk-takers (among other qualities) without asking the same of themselves?

Along the way, over the course of my professional life, I also started writing creatively, becoming a photographer, attending writing workshops, art classes, and developing campaigns for church.

I retired from teaching in 2023, proud of the work I had done and ready to give myself more of my life.

The thing about creativity is this: you have it and it needs to find a way out. I have found that all of the energy I devoted to curriculum, students and leading others needed a place to go in retirement. And, wow, it has been amazing to see my creative energies guide and challenge me. It’s like I am being pulled on a current – one that was always in me – in new ways.

Now, I draw all of the time. I am currently working on a series of drawings about the Chagrin River. I am selling some of the drawings, being commissioned to draw for special circumstances. I am fully engaged in family photography. I am writing with a new vigor (not skill, unfortunately, but vigor).

When we were younger, my brother clearly had the artistic gene. He took a series of art classes in a well-resourced high school and went on to become an architect. A great architect. Me? In an effort to adopt my own skills, became an athlete. (Which, actually, I figured out later in life, is another way to exercise creativity. Think about controlling a tennis rally or forming a shot path in golf.)

As I aged, I let myself recognize and use my art skills. They are different from my brother’s, but there is something people like about the way I see and think about the world.

In my view, something inherently innovative has always been in me. An energy, a beckoning, a force. It – whatever it is and where ever it comes from – has just been along side for the life I chose to live. It was there in the way I played sports. It was there in how I chose to interact as a teacher. It is there – now – as I feel more compelled than ever toward more traditional art forms.

Would it have mattered if I started earlier? Maybe, I don’t know. It really does not matter. I have no regrets about devoting my professional life to something I felt called to do, teaching. There is no need to look back because its still there – this fiery muse – waiting to see what is next.

Jean, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I provide photos for families that look and feel like their family. Candid, open-hearted, never falsely silly or shiny. I am able to grab the person and get them in an image.

I draw in a way that seems to have energy and freshness. It’s not technically strong. It is a form of “low” art – markers. Maybe, probably, a form of folk art – art of the untrained. Yet, people asked me to share it, to sell it, to make it available in the world.

I write, especially sermons, in a vulnerable way – it does not seem vulnerable to me, it just feels like the story I am compelled to tell. But, I guess, in comparison to how and what others write, I am willing to shed the skin.

I am proud that, even at this age and without much training, I am willing to put myself out there – say and do things that others may not do.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

First of all, I hate (HATE) the word creatives. I think it is elitist and distancing. About twenty years ago, when I spoke with a friend who helped coach “creatives” to further develop their careers, I said that I was a creative and she said, “No, no you are not. Creatives are artists and art directors and graphic designers and…”

I did not have the confidence then to say, “Nope, you’re wrong. I am a creative, many people are creatives. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, chefs, high ranking executives, professional pitchers…”

I have taught children in grades K -4 for most of my life and all of them had spells of creativity, some more than others for sure. I have worked with and interacted with a huge range of people and many – if we would speak more creatively about creativity – would see themselves as creatives.

So, first of all, I would never address someone as a non-creative. Second, as try to do all of the time, I would ask questions to get to know the person, trying to figure out their special sauce. How they landed where they are, how they innovate and find new paths.

I am thinking now about my neighbors – the people in the six houses that surround me. One of them would be officially called a creative – Robin, a storyteller and performer. But there is Graham, a garden landscaper. Kyra, who develops systems to manage healthcare accounting. Guy, who analyzes and is forging a new city charter. Leonard, who hosts dinner parties. Stephanie, who works with doctors to make sure that prescriptions help conditions, Omar who is a prosecuting attorney, Jill who finds social work supports for her clients, Erin who writes code, Bear who is the primary parent for his teen children. All of them are creative, every single one.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To understand myself and the world; by expressing what I feel and think, open others feelings and thinking.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/view/jeanreinholdfindingbeauty
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jean.reinhold/

Image Credits

I took all photos