Richard Huck is an artist and art educator working out of Lancaster, PA. Originally pursuing a career in commercial art at Millersville University (on a football scholarship), Richard switched to Art Education in order to make himself more marketable after graduation. What followed was long, successful career as an art teacher while simultaneously continuing to produce his own pieces of art. Listen to Richard’s story and check out a few pieces he shared with us!
Transcript
>> Okay, I'm Richard Huck. I am an art teacher. I majored in Art Education here at Millersville. Many, many moon ago via the football team actually. I was sent an offer to come out here and play football with Dr. Carpenter. And I lived through his earlier years. But I was going to be more of a commercial artist. And I switched majors about half-way through, just to be a little bit more marketable. And I found that I had a passion for working with students. And after a few rough years in the beginning, getting used to students and discipline and so on, I found my groove. And just kept on digging it deeper and deeper and deeper. Busy day? Four periods in a row. I would be teaching -- now I -- my colleague and I revamped the entire art program where I was teaching. So we now have, like, Introduction to Drawing. Advanced Drawing. Intro to Painting. Advanced Painting. Design -- both levels. Ceramics -- both levels. We didn't teach photography, because that was the Tech Ed Department doing that. So I might have two Introduction to Drawing classes, which I always found to be challenging. Because I'd get just about any kind of ability in there. A lot of them thought that it would be an easy class because it's drawing. It's an intro level. I -- anybody can draw. And then they found out I approached it very academically. And taught them how to draw. And it's like, oh. But it was nice because I could see changes in the kids. From the first couple weeks to the very end, and the efforts that they put into it. I mean you can't reach them all. But I was very fortunate, I think, that I reached a -- quite a few of them, you know? And changed their thinking. Even if they didn't become artists, it's -- it didn't matter to me. So all they had to do is appreciate art. I look at the students. I look at if they followed directions. They've taken my suggestions. What they've created. How hard they've worked on it. If they've put thought and energy into the piece. Or if they sat and talked the entire time, and just scribbled something down and handed it in. I was a pretty, I would say lenient grader. I didn't like to flunk anybody. And on the same respect, I didn't give a lot of A's out unless I really knew that those people worked hard. And it didn't matter to me what their artwork looked like so much as, how they worked on it. And what they put into it. [ Silence ]
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