Spread across the second floor of the main building, with interesting things decorating the walls of each of their rooms, the White Station High School (WSHS) art teachers are a unique bunch well-known and well-loved by students. With diverse interests and hobbies, teaching a mixed bag of students and classes, the art teachers are a pinnacle of WSHS.
Charles Berlin
Berlin found himself drawn to teaching because of his love of art and his love to see other people create art. He started art at a young age, an interest that continued for the rest of his life. He attended Memphis College of Art on a scholarship and later got a teaching degree from the University of Memphis in order to make a consistent living.
“I love art and I love to see people working on art, and it’s a kindred spirit kind of thing, so I like to be surrounded by artists,” Berlin said. “I was the school cartoonist in high school and did the work for the newspaper; I had my own comic strip. I did … artwork for the yearbook.”
Outside of WSHS, Berlin does a lot of commission work for TV shows and magazines, primarily doing spot illustrations. Specifically, his work has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery Channel and in art books like Fantagraphics Books.
“I don’t know if you’re familiar with … David Hatcher Childress. He’s on the History Channel. He comments on history and the paranormal and, you know, world mysteries and stuff like that. And so I’ve worked for him … since 1998.” Berlin said. “ I got my job by sending him a fan letter and sending him a cartoon, and he called me the next day — I had forgotten I put my phone number on there — and said, ‘Hey, can you send me more?’ And so I’ve sent him more … since 1998. And before then I was a comic artist, and I worked for the alternative comics boom of the ‘80s and got published by Fantagraphics Books — which is one of the premier art books — and fulfilled my contract with that and worked for Slave Labor Graphics. … Now I work for the History Channel, Discovery Channel and the Travel Channel doing spot illustrations for their paranormal shows ‘Expedition Bigfoot,’ ‘The Proof is Out There’ [and] ‘Skinwalker Ranch.’”
David Pentecost
Prior to teaching at White Station, Pentecost worked as an artist and private art teacher, but switched to teaching at schools for a stable income. Pentecost had loved art since childhood and always enjoyed teaching, making the career path a suitable choice.
“I taught a lot of private art classes and sometimes I would be busy and have work and sometimes I wouldn’t,” Pentecost said. “Ultimately, it was enjoyable and … it was something I liked to do, but at the same time, it was more difficult … I worked as an artist and also did some other odd jobs — work in restaurants — things like that for a while. And then finally decided it’d be good to have a stable career [and] health insurance, so I went back to the University of Memphis (UofM) and did their teacher education program. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from [the] UofM and then, once I started teaching, I got hired on at the same time as going back to get a master’s degree and was able to work and get that at the same time.”
Now, Pentecost teaches Art I and Advanced Placement (AP) 3D Art and Design as well as managing the yearbook. Unlike other art classes, Yearbook is different as the entire class works the whole year to produce one yearbook for the entire school.
“[Yearbook is] just different because we’re working on one big project together and it’s … the deadlines are different, the dynamic is different,” Pentecost said. “Everything is a group project. And it’s, you know, I guess that would be the biggest thing — just it being less individual and more of this big effort you even do with the school itself. [I became the yearbook advisor when] the previous yearbook advisor left. They needed somebody and I guess I have some digital art skills and … to tell you the truth, I don’t know how I really landed the gig or what truly set me apart or anything like that, but, maybe just a willingness to do it. That was important.”
Traci Petersen
Traci Petersen has been a teacher for over 20 years, with seven of those years spent teaching art and AP Art History at WSHS. She previously taught at Broward College in Florida. While she initially planned to get a PhD in French, she instead decided to turn her interest in academia and teaching towards art.
“It seemed like a natural thing to do, being in the arts, because there are a couple of directions you can go,” Petersen said. “So … if you’re making art, you can become a professional artist, or you can be a professional artist and a teacher, or you can be a teacher, right? In art history, you either go the route of getting a PhD, which I did not do, or you become a teacher, it seems to me. It’s kind of how it works. Either way, if you’re a professor and you get a PhD, you’re still often teaching.”
Outside of school, Petersen does interior design for houses. So far, she’s designed two houses, one of which she has sold. The large scale of interior design lines up with her other artistic interests, which include large-scale sculpting and welding.
“My focus when I’m not teaching these days [is interior design] — because once I moved to Memphis [it] was that I was redoing a house, and then we sold that house, and I redid another house,” Petersen said. “So it’s primarily been sort of like interior design the last several years, but just personal interior design. In the first house here in town, [I was involved in] most of the labor, but in the second house we moved into here, I mean, I firmly believe in paying people who are good at what they do, so I’m not gonna do tile, and I’m definitely not gonna touch plumbing or electrical. I’m not gonna do any of those because that’s what trained professionals are for. It depends on how much is getting done. I mean … could I bust down a wall? Sure, I could do it under the right supervision, right? Have I done that before? Sure. But, you know, now that I’m at this point in my life, I will pay the professionals to do it right.”
Cameron Spell
Cameron Spell had a unique path to becoming a teacher, as she started as a substitute teacher before eventually becoming a full-time teacher. She had worked as a stay-at-home mom, raising her children before becoming a teacher.
“[I became a teacher] out of necessity,” Spell said. “I started [at WSHS] part-time as a sub for the last two weeks of school for another art teacher that had moved or was out, having a child. And she did not return, so Dr. [Wanda] Wynette was the principal at the time, and she hired me to take her position as a part time teacher. I was a part-time [teacher] for two years, and then, Ms. Medlin — who was in the room that I’m in now — she was an art teacher, she retired. And they hired me full-time to take her place.”
Spell uses a variety of art forms. Like many artists, Spell has had an interest in art since childhood, but she took a break from the craft when her own children were born. With her children now adults, Spell has more time to devote to her own art, for which she uses a variety of mediums but most recently has primarily used quilling.
“[The mediums I use vary; I use] chalk pastels; I like color,” Spell said. “I like paint pens, chalk pastels, oil pastels … [colored] pencils [were] one of my favorites, and I’ve recently kind of discovered quilling, and I’ve kind of got a quilling thing going in [my] life right now because it’s very easy to get out, put away. It’s making art with the paper, taking thin strips of paper, and manipulating it to different patterns.”
Outside of just art and teaching, art teachers have a variety of unique hobbies, from running to watching basketball to traveling and more. Berlin runs marathons and collects automobiles. Petersen travels with her husband and reads, with a bias for Agatha Christie and fantasy novels. Spell spends her free time at Bible study, with her grandchildren or riding her electric bicycle when the weather allows.
“I coach my son’s basketball team and go to lots of Grizzlies basketball games … other than that — I’m trying to think of a good term — I’m an avid hot tubbist, you could say. I don’t know, that’s goofy,” Pentecost said. “I enjoy teaching here at White Station. I enjoy the classroom environment. [The] students are funny here, and I like feeling like I have a window in their day that maybe they enjoy in the classroom.”
