We recently connected with Angela Behrends and have shared our conversation below.
Angela, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
What artist, in their right mind, leaves a tenure-track university teaching position?
During the COVID 19 pandemic, when so many people were shrinking into their ad hoc home offices, South Dakota universities and their Board of Regents continued F2F classes with mask and social distancing mandates. Ironically, this was a high time for my 2-D and 3-D Design experiential teaching. Suddenly the campus gallery schedule had fallen open, allowing me and my 3-D Design students to create an amazing interactive art installation–which got picked up by a major art institution (when the curator visited campus) for an extended and very well attended exhibition in their gallery. I also had my students designing and constructing site-specific projects for campus, especially the high-traffic student union building. Our work of learning was engaging and important–we were adding energy and making a significant and positive impact on our community.
Life goes on.
We start to settle into “the new normal.”
Change is accelerating and my energy reserves are depleted.
Some of my favorite colleagues take other positions and move away.
Student tracking and retention is far more difficult as they pivot to educational off-roading skills learned during COVID 19.
Hy-flex teaching becomes an institutional expectation.
I am suffering compassion fatigue and educator burn-out–AND it is time for me to gather and arrange extensive materials to prove my effective teaching, creative research, service, and deservingness of tenure and promotion at the university.
What artist, in their right mind, leaves a tenure-track university teaching position?
I did. It seemed crazy–I was deeply unhappy, and I felt so broken.
How did it turn out?
This artist, in her right mind, thinks carefully about what she needs to thrive. She makes decisions and moves to nurture herself and her creative spirit.
This phase of my life started as de facto entrepreneurship (disguised as unemployment.) There have been some dark and uncertain days. I am now embracing this amazing opportunity to make and sell my art and designs. I have a lot to learn, and I am excited about this life!
It feels really good to be able to say this.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My Grandma Ferry was a joyful and curious weirdo. She made up her own patterns for sewing a menagerie of stuffed toy animals, giving them googly-eyed sight whenever she could get away with it. She made modeling clay in her kitchen and cured her sculptures in her oven. She carved apples into human faces and let them shrivel into a leathery old couple, dressing them in custom tiny velvet tuxedo and white satin wedding dress. This is my ancestry. Watching this woman create folk objects for the pure joy of it was one of the greatest gifts of my childhood. I learned that the act of making is ubiquitous and has the potential to bring endless joy to both maker and observer.
Art classes soothed my misery in high school, and I went on to earn my sculpture and printmaking BA at University of Minnesota Morris, and my sculpture MFA at University of Nebraska Lincoln. I taught foundation art 2-D and 3-D design at Dakota State University in Madison, SD for 14 years. Washington state is my new residence.
Animals, birds, plants, and elementals (like water, energy and light) are the subjects of my mixed-media sculptures and prints. My work recalls our connection to the Earth, to land and place. Sometimes it grounds us with natural materials and content, sometimes it elevates us with beauty or humor. Sometimes my work asks us to reach beyond what we think we know and consider a quantum approach–energy over matter, where objects and images represent (and may even transmute our awareness to) the metaphysical.
I’m most proud that my art is accessible to all kinds of people–higher education and complicated backstories are not necessary to appreciate the things I make. However, layers of meaning are there to uncover if you are somebody who prefers to dive deeper.
I endeavor to be like Grandma Ferry. I do my very best to make art and designs that deliver a reverence for Nature and a joyful celebration of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://AngelaBehrends.BlogSpot.com
Image Credits
Angela Behrends