ARTS - T0P STORY
The art of teaching
by Adele Balderston

WCC professors see hundreds of students come and go each year. But every so often a student emerges whose potential is so apparent, the teacher becomes a mentor and the student becomes a protégé.

Ke Kumu me Ka Mana, the current exhibition in Gallery Iolani, celebrates this relationship through the works of four WCC professors and their former students: Snowden Hodges and Jonathan Busse (drawing and painting), Mark Hamasaki and Kapulani Landgraf (photography), Paul Nash and Cary Lathan-Weigard (ceramics) and Toni Martin and Jude Wroblewski (drawing and painting).

The exhibition consists of 60 pieces in a variety of mediums, including ceramic, oil, conté, pastel, graphite and acrylic, as well as two photo collages and eight silver gelatin prints.

“What is exciting about exhibiting the work of teacher and student together is that you can see the teacher reflected in the student,” said Martin, who is also Gallery‘Iolani’s director. “The teacher lays the groundwork; from there it’s exciting to see which direction the student will go.”

“I first met Cary when she signed up for my beginning clay class, Art 105, about eight years ago,” said Nash. “After her first clay assignment, I could tell she had a great deal of talent. So I put her in an area where she had more space and her work evolved at an outstanding rate.”

Wroblewski gave a similar account of the beginning of her relationship with her former teacher.

“When I met Toni Martin eight years ago, I hadn’t touched a paint brush since high school,” she said. “Little did I realize that my life would take a major turn after enrolling in Art 101 at Windward.”

Lathan and Wroblewski have both since earned master’s degrees of fine arts and moved to Oregon to pursue their respective art careers. Busse and Landgraf, however, have returned to Windward where they now work beside their former teachers.

“I know Mark says we are colleagues, but he will always be my teacher,” asserted Landgraf. “I think coming back and teaching at Windward has only made me appreciate Mark more. He has always been willing to share his teaching experiences with me, and I have gained much insight from him.”

Busse expressed similar sentiments about his former teacher, Hodges.

“Snowden is still my teacher, even though I’m not taking his classes anymore,” he said. “All of my pieces have some influence from him.”

Although students may gain infinite knowledge and insight from their teachers, their relationship is an exchange; both parties are forever learning from each other.

“One thing you learn being a teacher is problem-solving,” said Hodges. “When you have students, you learn how to work through problems they experience, so by the time you run into that problem for yourself you already know how to solve it.”

Hamasaki agreed that students often teach their teachers.
“She (Landgraf) has taught me a lot — for example, place names and things about Hawaii I didn’t know,” he explained. “We both have something to offer to the relationship.”

According to Martin, the exchange continues after both student and teacher have left the classroom.

“I’m inspired by the fact that Jude finds it meaningful in her life to do art, long after the teacher is gone. That’s what it’s all about,” said Martin.

The exhibition will run until May 1. Gallery ‘Iolani is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Toni Martin at 236-9155.