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

Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I have learned everything I currently excel at because of TIME. I know that isn’t a sexy answer but its genuine. I followed multiple passions, took odd jobs, worked through difficult situations, waitressed, went back to school, met incredible humans, became a mother, and traveled. All of that life experience accumulated into the art I make today, the skillsets Ive built up, and the ways that I teach it all.

The skills that are most essential to my work, beyond the technical skills of my crafts, are patience, dedication, and organization. Nothing I create could get done or made without these three everyday parts of my being. Creativity and ability only takes you so far.

The only obstacles that have stood in my way, that I see as a negative, are financial constraints. Student loans are the most exhausting weight for my upward trajectory.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Maria Teicher. I’m a painter, photographer, and Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. I also run my own wedding and portrait photography business called Iris and Echo. I’m an artist that wears many hats and often those hats go on my head at the same time. :)

To break it down:
My BFA and MFA are in painting. This is where my biggest passion lies creatively. I am a regularly exhibiting traditional oil painter. My work is highly detailed and representational. Currently I am focusing on botanical still life images with underlying stories that highlight my experience as a mother.

Photography has always been my secondary passion. I love its technology, democratization, and documentary abilities (which often contrast my focused and directed paintings). Alongside a love for everyday reportage, I started photographing people to use in my paintings about 20 years ago. About a decade ago, that turned into a business focusing on more fine art photojournalistic inspired weddings.

Lastly, I am an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art – the United States’ oldest and first art school. I teach visual storytelling, creative problem solving, and (very passionately) a course on reference photography for painters and illustrators. Teaching is where I wear all my creative hats at once to deliver information in a fully informed manner.

What sets me apart as an artist is also what I am most proud of: the culmination of all my creative passions. I do this in my own work but also in what I teach. I regularly work to dismantle the stereotypes that come with traditional art academia – mainly when it comes to using technology (reference images) in representational painting.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have a few moments of “rebellion” that have helped me get to exactly where I am today.

The first two were while I was working towards my BFA. I had two teachers who all but told me I should leave the world of painting. My illustration professor continually encouraged me to leave school and go be a tattoo artist (she meant it as an insult but honestly, tattoo artists are some of the most talented illustrators). Nearly in tandem, my painting professor told me I was terrible and should not continue down a painting path.

While in graduate school I was regularly berated about my use of photography in my work. My critiques were discouraging, often rude, and brought up discussions about how “real artists” only worked from life or imagination.

These stick out clearly because they were from academia – a place meant for strengthening skills, encouragement, community building, and guidance. I felt none of those. Now that I am in a professorial position, I work hard to be encouraging and not someone my students feel they need to prove wrong.

Ironically, or through my resilient nature, I am now a professional photographer and painter who teaches proper reference photography to illustrators and painters. I found a way to gather my two skillsets for my exhibition career and simultaneously into a class that gives my students proper tools instead of discouragement.

My resilience, rebellion, or call it stubbornness, has directly led to where I am now… proving all of those teachers wrong, in the same academic position they were once in for me, and changing that narrative for my own students.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the hardest ideas I had to untangle myself from, post graduate school, was that becoming a mother would be a “career killer”. Now a mother of two who is succeeding in multiple areas of her creative life, I just see the art world as extremely patriarchal, small minded, and elitist. I am such a better and more enriched human, and therefore artist, since choosing to have children. I’ll use all my extra energy to elbow my way through crowds to tell the stories I now live, and hopefully make room for others to do the same. There is no part of this deeply soul shifting experience that murders careers. There is only people in positions of power that refuse to hear what some of us have to say.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mariateicher.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariateicher/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariaTeicherArt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariateicher/