With the start of the new school year, SHS is ready to welcome a new art teacher, David Wissel, to his first full year of teaching at Southport. Wissel graduated from SHS back in 2008. Sixteen years later, he’s come back not as a student, but rather, as a teacher.
1) What school did you teach at before coming to SHS?
I taught at a Catholic school on the East side called Little Flower.
2) What classes do you teach specifically?
I teach all the 2Ds, so I teach Intro to 2D and Drawing, and then next semester, I offer Intro to 2D, Advanced 2D, Drawing and Advanced Drawing.
3) What do you do in all your classes?
So my classes (are) pretty much usually an exploration of media, from graphite to pens and pencils and markers and pastels (and) paint, all the two-dimensional media.
4) Why did you decide to start teaching at Southport?
It was always my end goal to end up here because I love the community, and I have always been involved here. Besides teaching, I’ve coached here since 2012 in boys volleyball.
5) What is art to you?
Art to me is the most important outlet of creativity. With art, you’re able to make anything you want, literally. You can create your own universe, and that’s what my vision is for the people in my class to create. It’s kind of like an academic escape, so you can get away from all the stress of your math, and your English, and writing papers (and) doing equations and all that, and then you can just focus in on spacing out.
6) How long have you known that you wanted to teach art?
I knew I wanted to teach art after having some awesome professors in college. In college, I didn’t really know what route I wanted to take until I had some very influential professors that were very amazing and inspiring, and I knew that that’s what I wanted to do, and that’s how I wanted to be.
7) What was a moment in your life when art has inspired you?
I’d say from my very earliest age, I can remember being awestruck at conceptual video game art. Being blown away by all these creature designs (and) landscape designs that I saw, all these artists were able to create their own alternate reality of all these science fiction or fantastical worlds, and that’s really what inspired me to really get into art.
8) How do you plan to grow and inspire your students through your classes?
In my classes, I want to harbor their creativity, and I want them to be able to have art accentuate their lives. I want them to find something that’s inspiring to them, and then they’re able to run in that direction, whether … they’re inspired by sports or by fashion design or by logos or a specific brand, if they can just take a concept and be able to run with it.
