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

Rebecca lS, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 started taking painting courses at night at a community college. Everything was always laid out what we were painting, whether it was a still life, a portrait or a figure model and there were some fun games, that I also introduce to my students, such as the Painting Machine. The Painting Machine were choices such as Halloween or Christmas, Tacos or Pasta, etc. and whatever you circled, the key was on the back to what format you would paint, portrait or landscape, secondary colors vs. monochromatic and more. I loved this game of chance.
When I transferred to get my Bachelor’s degree and signed up for a painting course, I was struck by nothing was laid out on what we were painting, but we had to come up with our own ideas. This was hard after 2 years of painting from observation. One class helped me though, where I had a list of 65 different ideas to interpret into artwork. I loved this.
I had a really bad critique one time because I got in trouble for using every single color in a painting. It took me 2 months to get back to painting and I haven’t stopped. It forced me to grow up.
I moved on, got my art degree, my teaching degree and try to be kind to my own students without ever trying to make them feel bad about creating work.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was a mail carrier and loved carrying mail, but wanted to pursue art or something creative. I went back to finish my art degree as an older adult and then got my Master’s degree to teach art. I am currently finishing my 20th year in teaching.
I love teaching, but also love painting and playing with different mediums.
I moved to Brooklyn June 2020 when Covid hit. I first came to NY from Oregon in 2010 to be part of an Art 21 teaching cohort. It really changed how I teach, focusing on ideas and things that matter. I want my students work to be based on who they are in society and be culturally aware.
I was off for a year painting neighborhood scenes in Brooklyn and I was so incredibly bored. I found a job a year later.
I am still teaching and I do the projects my students do. I also teach AP Studio art and there are quick deadlines. I create work based on the deadlines my students have and talk about art blocks, paintings that don’t work, how I revise and how to continue working with an idea, which this year has to do with my subway travels to and from work.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

As an art teacher, it is my job to be a working artist and talk about struggles to create and come up with ideas as I mentioned previously. It is also my job to inspire and give my best to my students. I am not a perfect teacher and I will back track and talk about why a lesson has changed, or how I change what I am working on as a painter, why I have revised something, why I have scrubbed/sanded an artwork to make it better.

As an art teacher, my role is to guide the student to learn how to think, problem solve and write about art, what they are thinking, learning content vocabulary and being able to fail to learn.

Teachers should be paid a lot more money. We deal with every aspect of the student-their moods, their ideas of perfection, what an artist is or is not. I feel art should be a required course and given equal importance to language arts, math, etc. It helps student to problem solve and think about what matters to them.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Painting has sort of set me free. I love the physicality of painting, the colors, the mixing of paint. I was selected years ago through Scholastic and Golden Arts Colors Foundation to be 1 of 3 teachers who went to New Berlin, NY, where we used Golden Artist Colors paints, mediums, had workshops, dinners, lunches, breakfasts and talked about art as we worked for a week in a studio setting. It was glorious trying different mediums, colors, and talking to the other two women who were part of the experience.

I have been an AP 2D Studio Reader for the last 2 years and this has helped me connect with other amazing art teachers and it has helped me out in teaching AP Studio art.
Art 21 has also been a huge factor in my education. Being part of a teaching cohort, going over lessons, videos to use and writing about the process was extremely difficult, but matters so much in what I think about and how I teach and/or create.

I have had many opportunities of working with great colleagues, planning lessons and creating life-long friendships.

I am not always creating, but I am always thinking about artwork and painting and how to stay creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rebeccalsbuchanan.weebly.com
• Instagram: rebeccalsbuchanan_artist

Image Credits

Ania Fedisz for the portrait of me-