Interview with a Creative Practitioner: Jeffery Peeno

I sat down with Jeffery Peeno the first week in April 2015 to discuss the rewarding and challenging experiences he encounters as an artist as well as a visual arts educator. Mr. Peeno is the sole Art teacher at Turkeyfoot Middle School in Edgewood, Kentucky. His wife Alison, also among the faculty at Turkeyfoot, is an acclaimed Choir teacher. The couple met while working at the school. They have a son who is in 6th grade and attends Turkeyfoot and is enrolled in Mr. Peeno’s Art class for the first time. I had the opportunity to observe Peeno’s Art class back in March and it was an educational experience for me as a pre service Art teacher. Mr. Peeno has been teaching at Turkeyfoot for the past 11 years and was kind enough to share some of what he has learned along the way.

BL: Jeffery, You mentioned before that you create art in your free time and have sold your work and shown it in galleries. How do you think your own art practice has influenced your teaching or vice versa?

JP: I think teaching art has actually made me a better artist in some ways. As a teacher I am constantly helping them with their drawing. So I think by constantly drawing as a demo or helping a student individually, I have actually become better at drawing. I think my art practice has taught me patience along with having a kid of my own. That has definitely helped me to have more patience with the kids I teach.

BL: You mentioned that you consider yourself to primarily be a painter. What is your subject matter and how would you describe your creative process?

JP: I primarily paint portraiture. I suppose I would describe my style as an unfinished coloring book. While it is representational, it is definitely abstract in the colors I use and the unfinished qualities. I would maybe compare it to what Matisse or Cezanne were trying to do. In my paintings I am really interested in creating form through shadow and letting the viewer connect the dots to finish the image for themselves.

BL: You also mentioned your affinity for Art History. Was that your major in college? Also what Art movement do you most identify with and why?

JP: I was actually a film major in college. My parents weren’t overly enthusiastic about me going to art school. I remember the night I decided I wanted to teach and told my parents. They told me they thought that was great but when they thought I wasn’t I heard them talking about how I was never going to make any money. That crushed me. I ended up going to school for business to please my dad and I absolutely hated it. Not to mention I couldn’t handle the math. After I graduated and got a job I was miserable. I told my dad how I was feeling and he told me to quit immediately and do what made me happy. That’s when I decided to get my teaching degree.

As for Art History, I think it started in high school. That’s when I really fell in love with it. Whenever my wife and I travel we are always hitting up the art museum. My favorite art movement is probably surrealism if I had to pick one.

BL: Do you teach contemporary art to your art students?

JP: A little, mostly to my gifted kids. I have a class of gifted or AP kids and we look at a lot of street art. We look at artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey.

BL: Do you have a teaching philosophy? If so could you try to explain it?

JP: That’s a tough question because I think even as a tenured teacher who has been doing this for eleven years, I think my teaching philosophy is in a constant state of flux. In the same way that as an artist you change and grow over time, as a teacher this is also the case.

BL: Do you think you practice or encourage transparency or vulnerability in your classroom?

JP: Sure. As a teacher you wear may hats, sometime you are a therapist or psychologist. I encourage my students to take risks and I try to create a safe environment to make mistakes in order to get better. As a teacher I am very honest about myself but also when critiquing their art. When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you can tell when a student is putting in their best effort or not.

BL: How would you say you assess their learning then? Is it all about effort?

JP: Yes, I would say so.

BL: What has it been like teaching in the same school as your spouse?

JP: It’s been great. I love working in the same building with my wife. When you are a married couple teaching in the same school, other faculty members tend to look at you as though you have more power because you have two votes, two voices.

BL: What do you think are the risks of asking hard questions of ourselves and of our students in an attempt to understand others and the world we share?

JP: That’s a good question. I think it’s a truth you’re unaware of, one that’s unexpected. As a teacher you want to be there for all your students but sometimes you have to draw a line. I think people have a hard time with the truth when it’s not what they want to believe.

BL: What kinds of methods do you employ to get students to engage in dialog about art?

JP: I like to break them up into small groups no larger than four students per group when we’re critiquing artwork. I have this one lesson where I show them this painting of a flower. It looks rather abstract. We discuss its value as art. Then I tell them that an elephant painted it and none of them believe me. I then show them a video of the elephant painting the flower and they are awestruck. The elephant goes on to paint another elephant and they are even more shocked. After watching the video we critique the art again and discuss whether it is or isn’t art based on the fact that an elephant painted it.

BL: Do you consider yourself to be a teacher more so than an artist or the other way around?

JP: I would consider myself an artist before teacher but that might change. I’d really like to teach high school and be able to dig a little deeper into issues that middle school kids aren’t mature enough to handle. But for now, if I had to choose I would say artist first, teacher second.