Mrs. Missy Wolf is a Rocky art teacher who has implemented creativity into her life and her teaching. To her, connections are very important, and after 27 years at Rocky, Wolf has learned ways that teaching art can connect her to other people.
Having been in education for a long time, Wolf has taught and created many different forms of art, but her favorite allows her to create new things out of objects like pinecones and clay masks.
“My favorite is to paint on 3D things, like masks and monsters. Mixed media is what I prefer,” Wolf said. “I love little creatures, I love making things. I just like to make little creatures and places you can go, I like imaginary stuff.”
Over time, her office has filled with the many different applications she’s learned about, and creations cover the walls.
“I like to share; I like to make connections. I think everybody has a gift, and I like getting to know people.”
Everyone thinks of art in different ways, and having experience with so many different mediums means Wolf can learn about those people.
When she first began learning art, Wolf learned independently and created lesson plans on her own that led her down the path to teaching at Rocky.
“I learned a lot from books that would say step one’ and there’d be an example, ‘step two’ and that’s how I learned to break things down,” she said.
“I think it’s important to work with your hands and not just sit at a computer–to problem solve and make something out of nothing and to have more than one idea to solve a problem; life is full of problems and you’re gonna have to solve them.”
Apart from connecting with people, Wolf also found that art teaches kids important lessons that help anyone, regardless of how they use art later in life.
Wolf believes art helps to problem solve, but it also helps people emotionally.
“To figure out who you are and how life changes, it overlaps into every aspect, I think,” Wolf said.
But art isn’t the only way she believes she can connect with other people, Wolf’s other hobbies teach about others as well.
“I do like PE. I think I like the interaction and being outside. Or Journalism–in journalism you can visit and talk to people and write about things. I like to remember people and the stories of their lives,” she said.
Wolf spends time with her family in addition to all the kids she interacts with at work, she says, “family’s huge to me.” Last year she spent some time with them in the Netherlands.
There are a lot of things Mrs. Wolf loves about art, such as the things she gets to create. Wolf gets to see how art helps other people, and learning about people through art allows her to connect with them. These parts of her job show the importance of people and their stories in art.
