Artist Profile | Reg Lewis
Twofold: Artist -Teacher, Teacher - Artist
Before becoming a teaching artist, Reg Lewis earned his B.A. in creative writing from City College of New York and received his M.A. in Education from Lehman College as a New York City Teaching Fellow. He is entering his tenth year as an English teacher at Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx. A self-taught artist, Reg Lewis was deeply influenced by underground graffiti art culture, and has sold his art as a street vendor in Harlem and the Bronx. He is currently showing in two other Brooklyn-based exhibitions: “Power, Protest, and Resistance,” at the Skylight Gallery, curated by Danny Simmons, and “In Pursuit of Freedom” at the Corridor Gallery in association with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. He also works as a teaching artist at the Rush Arts Foundation, where he works with students from three separate age groups: Rush Little Kids, Rush Kids, and Rush Teens.
"Sun Ra is Touching," 2015, 8.5 x 11 in.
How do you see the relationship between your art and your teaching?
Several years ago, in my effort to accurately define and describe what I do on page and canvas, I invented the self-appointed title and term, “Freestyle Energy Designer.” My objective and direction as an artist was (and is) to release the vast range of colors randomly occupying my imagination and then to visually harmonize them into patterns dictated by intuition and meditative patience. The result often features intense but harmonious relationships between a multitude of colors and shapes, that I affectionately call Portraits of Energy. Therein lies the connection between my art and my teaching style; my students, in personality, presence and energy, represent the colors and shapes that I must harmonize in my classroom (as canvas) in order to establish an effective learning environment. It is a creative act of getting everyone on the same page. It too requires an extraordinary amount of patience, and I have a talent for striking this delicate balance in my classroom, no matter how intense and diverse the student “colors and shapes.” Essentially, the relationship between my art and my teaching style is the actual exploration of relationships as a subject of study and practice; they both demand great focus, flexibility, and, more importantly, the willingness to trust the unknown...
"Fro Zen (Still Be...)," 2015, 16 x 20 in.
"Herbie Lookin’ Out," 2015, 18 x 25 in.
