Educator to Feature in European Art Show

On Saturday, May 13, Avon High School Visual Art Teacher and National Art Honor Society Sponsor Margo Wallace will be in Antwerp, Belgium, for the debut of a group art show called 'Wish You Were Here'. She is among the artists whose work will be on display.

We conducted an interview with Margo to find out more about this adventure. Her answers are below, lightly edited for this format.

Tell us about yourself and your role at AHS.

I am one of the Art Teachers. I teach Intro to 2-D, Drawing 1, 2, 3, and 4, Painting 1, and 2, and AP Art and Design. I’ve been a teacher for 11 years but have been at AHS for the last nine. I started my teaching career at an elementary school in IPS, James Russel Lowell School 51. Outside of school, I teach a summer intensive for teens in Plainfield at Art on Main and I have worked there in various capacities since 2012.

This is an opportunity to show my students how hard work pays off when you dedicate it to something that you really want. Margo Wallace

Tell us about yourself as an artist. What is your favorite medium? How did you get started? Who has influenced you?

Art has always been my thing, even from a very young age I have loved making art. I have a visceral memory of when my elementary school art teacher gasped at one of my drawings and called me an artist for the first time at the ripe age of 7. In high school I took just about every art class I could. During my senior year, three out of my seven classes were art classes each semester. I went to Herron School of Art and Design and majored in Art Education. Since education majors had heavy course loads of education classes, my studio time was limited. But over the last two years I have poured a lot of time back into my art. Figuring out who I was as an artist was not easy and took a lot of time, but I finally found my path after taking an online course in portrait drawing in graphite at the beginning of 2021. From there I just kept making art, and the more I drew the more I discovered about who I am as an artist and what I want to say with my drawings. My favorite medium is graphite pencil, but I do also really enjoy chalk pastel and painting. I draw with pencil more than I do anything else, but I will from time-to-time revisit paint or pastel when I need a break from graphite. I pull influence and inspiration from the way that I experience the world around me and I try to articulate that in my artwork.

How did you get involved with the art group that will be exhibiting in Antwerp?

Cane Yo is a group of artists who make figurative artwork. I got involved with them during the COVID lockdown through a reference photo group chat. I started using those images for my artwork and started to get more involved from there. I found them on Instagram through an artist who I follow. She posted about the group and I joined the chat and the rest is history!

Describe your upcoming trip. Where are you going? What's going to happen there? What are you looking forward to?

We are going to leave Wednesday evening (May 10) and fly into Dublin where we have a long layover. (We are trying to maximize the limited time we will have.) We will spend the layover in the city and get into Belgium on the evening of May 11. We will spend Friday through Monday morning in Belgium with the people who are in the show. The opening is the evening of Saturday, May 13, and then we will fly home May 15. The plan is to eat good food, spend time with a group of artists who I have only known through zoom calls and group chats, and to get to experience an art opening night in another country! I’m really looking forward to getting to spend time with my artists friends and seeing our art hung in a gallery together.

Have you had similar experiences in the past? If so, describe them.

I’ve had artwork displayed in a couple of different galleries in Indianapolis and in Boston but never in another country. This is an entirely new experience for me!

How do you think this experience will impact you as an educator and benefit your students?

This is an opportunity to show my students how hard work pays off when you dedicate it to something that you really want. You cannot take a back seat in your success. The work you put into your passions is what you will get out of it, and there is never a timeline for success in something you love. You can take a long break from making art and come back to it with renewed passion and vigor.

[Two of Margo's works that will be featured in Antwerp are below. You can see more of her work on Instagram @MargoSimms.]