{"id":23647,"date":"2019-04-26T14:48:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T18:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23647"},"modified":"2019-04-26T14:48:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T18:48:26","slug":"local-art-teacher-explores-surreal-life-at-library-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-art-teacher-explores-surreal-life-at-library-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Local art teacher explores \u201csurreal\u201d life at Library gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\nBrock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an instructor, Kim Steffen is inspired\nevery time she walks into the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Steffen, who teaches art at Aurora\nMontessori School on Industrial Parkway North, drives home the fact that in her\nclassroom mistakes are allowed and flights of fancy are encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It opens up new doors to students, she\nsays, and the work they produce has opened up new doors to her as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Steffen explores these whimsical\nflights of fancy in her new exhibition Surrealist Landscapes, on now through\nMay 5, at the Aurora Public Library\u2019s Colleen Abbott Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has always had a passion for art. She\ngrew up in a household with an artist for a mother and a father, a printer by\ntrade, also in the arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following her passion, she studied art at\nMount Allison and received her Masters degree from the Pratt Institute of Art\nand Design in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat really opened my mind up to\ndifferent ways of doing art,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her work can range from abstracts to\nrealism, here she focuses on whimsy with paintings some have said display a\ntouch of Dali, as well as vibrant works in plasticine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get inspired by the kids,\u201d she says. \u201cI\nlove how children are just open to new things, to their imaginations. The\nnumber one thing I say to the kids is it is okay to make mistakes in art \u2013 and\nnow kids will say the same thing to themselves. These pieces are inspired by\nthe kids and their imaginations. In the past and how artwork doesn\u2019t have to be right or wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis exhibit gives\nme the opportunity to show my work. I used to show in galleries when I was in\nNew York and I showed at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, but being a teacher\nand a fulltime parent just slowed my process in showing my art. Art has come\nsecond, so it is nice to be able to [exhibit] in a public space. It\u2019s great too\nbecause a lot of the kids I teach come to the Library and parents can see what\nI do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, this might be\nthe very first time students have the chance to see their teacher in action,\nfollowing her passion. When they see her paintings on the wall, she says she\nhopes the kids \u2013 her students and those in the community at large \u2013 will see\nthat it is okay to \u201cbe free with your imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do very tight work, very realistic, and\ntechnically I am able to draw well, but I hope these pieces convey a sense of\nfreedom to just do what you want in art,\u201d she says. \u201cArt is the best subject to\nbe teaching, period. It trumps every other subject. I am lucky I get to go into\nthe classroom every day and when the kids see me they are so excited because\nthey just know they are going to be doing art. It is just magical and special.\nEverybody has a little bit off the artist in them.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir As an instructor, Kim Steffen is inspired every time she walks into the classroom. Ms. Steffen, who teaches art at Aurora Montessori School on Industrial Parkway North, drives home the fact that in her classroom mistakes are allowed and flights of fancy are encouraged. It opens up new doors to students, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2019-04-25-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-69p","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 11:06:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}