Music: Vitamin String Quartet “Hey There Delilah” Besides from some current projects, I have been posting my art and writings chronologically. This video represents, for me, the time in life when I left teaching forever. The 1st four years of my teaching career were the happiest time in my life. The next three years were extremely challenging but also rewarding (I was teaching at 2 different schools and in science labs at the Freshman level...art on a cart). The next 7 years increasingly became the worst of my existence. I have written about what happened to me and you can read about my experiences in my earlier posts on Instagram if you wish. I spent my final year with the school district using the remainder of my sick leave (my therapist wrote my doctor's note for the administration). My therapist (I originally saw a psychiatrist before seeing a psychologist) asked me multiple times if I wished to sue the school district for how I was treated and several of my attorney friends also believed I should sue. But I wanted to leave this period of my life behind and I had no desire to punish the tax payers who would have footed the bill for any damages I might have been awarded. I was just putting my life back together (from alcoholism and suicidal thoughts) and I only wanted to move forward. But no matter how badly I was treated, I wouldn't be where I am now if these events hadn't occurred. I would have simply retired and still been in Ohio. I was then able to make art full time for the first time in my life, even though I was somewhat poor. I even live in Europe now which was a life long dream of mine. The 3 students in these drawings were students of mine my 1st year. They often ate lunch with me and they were 3 of the kindest and sweetest little humans I have ever met. They are 3 of the bright shiny people I have written about. Over the next 13 years, hundreds of my students drew their faces and practiced coloring and shading techniques with the drawing projects I made with them. I used this wonderful string version of Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah" by Vitamin String Quartet because I probably heard this song 500 times or more during my 1st few years in the classroom. I let my students bring in CD's for us to listen to while we worked and I created mixes with songs they liked (clean versions only). I cannot separate this song from the memories of the happiest days of my life. This video is like a little love song to those moments.

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#drawings #portrait #arte #retrato #student #portrait #heytheredelilah