Developing as an artist is a journey that never ends. The art teachers at the high school know this well because they don’t just teach art, they make it and have made it for years, spanning different disciplines, styles and influences.

There are almost 40 visual art classes offered at the high school, and most students will take at least one before they graduate. While these art teachers help students take their first steps into the art world, the teachers themselves are continuing to experiment as they progress on their own art journey.

Eric Latimer is the comics, animation, digital design and 3D animation teacher at the high school. Latimer said that he began drawing when he was a child and was inspired by a “The Adventures of Tintin” comic that his grandfather gave him.

“I couldn’t read it at the time, but I would just imitate the drawings. I wouldn’t copy them but I would make it my own. That just got into me. It got into my bones and that was what launched it for me and from there it just happened. I just kept drawing and I just enjoyed it,” Latimer said.

Andrew Maglathlin is the ceramics and sculpture teacher, and his career in ceramics started when he was in high school. Maglathlin spent the first eight years of his ceramics career making functional vessels, but he has now transitioned to creating sculptural vessels with coil-building.

“I think I was always a little scared to do that because within ceramics it’s so rooted in the vessel. I didn’t want to leave it because it was a little bit of safety,” Maglathlin said. “I had a student here and she made sculptural forms and at one point she said to me ‘I don’t know why you don’t just make sculptures.’ So now I make coil-built sculptures for the most part.”

Just like Maglathlin, Sabine Strauch, the teacher for metals, Art Studio and Drawing for Understanding in Field Science, said that while teaching at the high school she has been inspired to try new techniques.

“Once you start learning about new ways of making, it kind of opens the door and allows for more experimentation,” Strauch said. “For instance, teaching Drawing for Understanding in Field Science has made me think a lot about how going forward I want to incorporate more scientific material in my work.”

Donna Sartanowicz, the Curriculum Coordinator for the Visual Arts PK-12, said that she is always trying out new forms of art, from garden design to performing in a band.

“I like learning new things. I like challenging myself and there’s something about being new at something that is very freeing. It forces you to have a more playful and forgiving approach to what you’re doing, because there aren’t these expectations that it’s going to be perfect,” Sartanowicz said.

Maglathlin said he experiments with drawing and painting when he’s not working on ceramics.

“Painting is maybe a little bit slower and I kind of have to be in that mindset. But honestly, when I’m painting and I’m drawing, I’m just doing the same thing, but in a different medium. It obviously looks different, but I’m thinking about the same forms, I’m thinking about the same ideas and concepts,” Maglathlin said.

These art teachers’ journeys are a display of ever-changing mediums and techniques. Sartanowicz said she was able to use this love of trying new mediums to help her to become a better teacher.

“When I first started teaching, I was teaching mostly ceramics and sculpture, so most of my work was ceramics and sculpture. When I moved to teach here in Brookline, mostly what I was teaching was drawing and painting, so then I became more interested in that,” Sartanowicz said. “I think that my teaching and my students really benefit from that because it keeps me aware of what it’s like for a student learning these new things.”

Latimer has recently begun adding sound and music to his animations.

“It just makes it memorable. It gives it an extra bit of life and attention. Art is all about setting a trap for someone’s attention. And I think that is inviting to me,” Latimer said. “It’s like, ‘okay, I’m gonna make this little experience that hopefully other people enjoy,’ but they stop and [it] maybe makes them think, maybe amuses them. It adds some nice little something to their life; it’s just good to know you’re contributing to something like that.”

In Strauch’s eyes, all of the mediums that artists use throughout their life convey something meaningful.

“Each art form from theater or music, or dance, they’re all different ways of displaying emotion and capturing the attention of different types of people,” Strauch said. “I think it’s a really special way of connecting with people and delivering important messages.”