◊ ◊ ◊ ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR ◊ ◊ ◊

Hello! My name is Jeanne LaVallee, the Founder of Apple Village Arts, Inc. in the East Village (NYC).

I have been inspired by Artists since childhood: 'Magic Drawing Board' (Captain Kangaroo Show, 1960s and '70s), Captain Bob (Drawing from Nature with Capt Bob Show, 1970s), two classmates named George in high school, and then later by Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Alice Neel.

I began drawing on recycled paper that my father would bring home from his workplace in the mid-1960s. When drawing, I felt that I was 'in the zone'.

As a child, I was lucky to be able to walk to any one of the local playgrounds in my town during the summer months, and join in Arts & Crafts Time on weekday afternoons, sponsored by the local Recreation Department.

Then in the mid-70s, I was fortunate to work with a master Artist, Sr Vincent de Paul, on Saturday mornings. Sr Vincent had studied Visual Art in Boston, then earned her MA in Art and taught at Emmanuel College (Boston), and also had a cable TV show called "Signed by the Artist". Her classes introduced me to a whole new 'universe' of media: charcoal, pen & ink, acrylics, copper enamel, ceramics, wood block prints, and more. I did not realize at the time what an important part she and those classes would play.

At the same time (in the mid-70s), my most inspiring family member, my Aunt Rita, taught me how to crochet and knit. Then, when macramé 'came on the scene', I taught myself the knots. I began creating items with macramé--plant hangers, belts, bracelets, hand bags, xmas tree ornaments--and selling them at local stores and at arts fairs in town.

I studied Visual Art at Wesleyan University in the early 1980s (though Art was not what my parents had in-mind for me!). I was surrounded by creatives and thinkers which nourished my natural tendencies. At college, with master Artists/Teachers, I studied Drawing, Painting, Typography, and Ceramics, as well as Art History (with Profs David Schorr, Jacqueline Gourevitch, John Paoletti). I began attending art openings at Davidson Arts Center, and visiting private collections and museums during these classes. Art was taken seriously, and my work was validated. I took a job stretching large canvases for Prof. Gourevitch, who was the person who introduced me to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC during a class trip she organized in 1983. I later moved to the City, and in the late '90s, I earned a Master's degree at New York University.

Since the 1980s, I have continued to draw and paint. I have found inspiration in Nature, especially in the natural beauty of the town where I was raised--Ipswich, Massachusetts. In mid-life I learned that Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) was born there. He was an artistic force: he founded a visual arts summer school on Turkey Shore Road, and he worked as a professor at Teachers' College at Columbia University during the academic year. One of his students there was Georgia O'Keefe. He also wrote an invaluable book: Composition (1899). In the mid-2000s, I painted several watercolor landscapes in Ipswich, my grandfather's and mother's birthplace, inspired by Dow's work.

As an Educator (since 1985), I inaugurated and organized Faculty Art Shows at schools were I worked (Shady Hill School and Wooster School). I became the first Art Educator at Bronx Leadership Academy II High School in the South Bronx in 2004. I created a curriculum there called "Two-Dimensional Art", and taught the entire freshman class that year. I also organized field trips to the MET Museum. For many of these students, this school trip was their very first visit to an art museum.

When my daughter was ten years old, I decided to start teaching after school Studio Art classes to children, mostly because I wanted to be with her after her school day. This successful venture, named Apple Village Arts, became a non-profit organization in 2013, and grew into an after school option for many in the East Village. To showcase the children's work, I organized biannual art exhibitions at a local cafe, one in the fall, "Hello, Hallowe'en", and one in the spring, "Welcome, Spring!". The children's creativity enhances my own approach to my work.

... in the AVA Studio, 2016

During that same year, 2011, one of my paintings was part of a group show at Pen & Brush Gallery here in NYC which for me was a dream, realized. Since then, I have continued finding pleasure and satisfaction with the process of drawing and painting. I know that this will be a life-long pursuit.

Thank you for choosing the Apple Village Arts Studio Art Course! With very best wishes,

--Jeanne LaVallee, MA

New York State licensed Educator

Apple Village Arts, Inc.

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