willits center for the arts

Featuring area teachers who are also artists.

Carolyn Bakewell - Art. Willits High School.

carolyn bakewell

Cortney Calahan - Biology and Environmental Science. Willits High School.

Marisela de Santa Anna - English as a Second Language and Spanish. Willits High School.

Laura Herman - Algebra. Willits High School.

Linda Jacobs - formerly Special Education, now Administration. Willits High School.

linda jacobs

My Great Grandmother lived with us when I was young. She taught my sister and me to love to create with handwork (embroidery, knitting and crocheting). In the 8th grade, I took the mandatory (for girls) sewing class, and found a new way to create. I have been sewing ever since.

I graduated from the simple shift I learned to sew in class to sewing my clothes, my children’s clothes, wedding dresses and prom dresses. I even tried my hand at a bit of men’s tailoring.

About 7 years ago, I joined a class on how to quilt - yet another way to create! I now quilt weekly with a group that still contains the people I met in that first class. It is wonderful to be in a creative group. This is now a major part of my life. It adds a layer that is not only a creative outlet, but also a community experience. My life is much richer for all the experiences to do with handwork, sewing and quilting.

Sue Jones - Librarian (retired). Willits High School.

sue jones

I think it is obvious from my work that I have played with different styles - but all involve paint. I am most comfortable with acrylics but have, within the past two years or so, really enjoyed taking watercolor and experimental watercolor classes from Ann Maglinte.

With many of my projects, it is not the final project that is the goal, but the process that I enjoy. I like learning what happens when paint meets water or other media. Sometimes I want structure and other times I like the serendipity of a process - like watercolor on yupo paper.

I really enjoy painting on wood - there is something satisfying about the nature of wood itself that makes me want to work with it. I wish I had studied art at a much younger age.

Steve Kesling - Woodworking. Willits High School.

steve kesling

I began learning to work with wood from Robert Wilkens, my high school woodworking instructor. It seemed that there was never anything I could mess up that he couldn’t make right, or show me how to make right. He was a great teacher of both woodworking and character building. He taught me how to be patient, along with the skills necessary to work with wood.

I’ve studied woodworking under Ian Kirby, and have always loved and admired the work and design of Sam Maloof.

I studied industrial technology at Chico State, with an emphasis on furniture and cabinetmaking. I earned my teaching credential in 1975, and have been teaching woodworking, along with running my own furniture-making shop, ever since.

I remember starting out wanting all my students to become great woodworkers. I’ve changed over the years, as the students have changed, and now I like to think of myself as a teacher of problem-solving. I feel successful when I’ve helped a student work through a thought. Woodworking is a great way to do that. After teaching them basic machine tool safety, I allow my students to design and build a project of their choosing. They take their idea and make it a finished product. When they succeed, I succeed. I help them through the problem-solving steps with guidance and, I hope, patience.

It saddens me when I see the training that was so common in my formative years take a backburner with budget cuts. I am thankful for the opportunity to teach in the Willits Unified School District, and thankful to the Board of Education, along with Deb Kubin and Gordon Oslund, for their progressive thinking in recognizing the need for the arts.

Jill Peacock - Gardening and Nutrition. Nokomis and Frank Zeek Elementary Schools, Ukiah.

Jacki Pealatere - Biology, Algebra, Drama. Willits High School.

jacki pealatere

You know that saying - “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”? Sorry, folks, those of us who teach AND do, know that it ain’t true: Those who teach often do, and lots more, too.

I had an interesting conversation with students in one of my biology classes: Do teachers have a life that isn’t teaching? The short answer is, of course, yes. Just as students often don’t think of parents as beings separate from themselves, the public often doesn’t think of teachers as anything but teachers...

As a biologist, it’s nature’s potential oddities that attract me: the creepy crawlies in the woods, the play on words of a goat hybrid pregnant with child and the troubles to come, the variety of domestic and wild critters that come into my life: you get the idea. My ceramics are an extension of myself as biologist and member of the natural world.

As a Spanish-speaking mutt, there’s also, of course, the fact that my family is both Venezuelan cousins and United Statesean spouse and children. The births of my children, the deaths of my brother and mother...these are a vital part of who I am, and needed to be celebrated in the three dimensions of a visual art.

Isn’t life curious?

Jessie Rees - Special Education. Willits High School.

Jill Walton - English and Physical Education. Willits High School.

jill walton

I started quilting when my children were young. My mom is a quilter, and she taught me about choosing fabrics, cutting and piecing accurately, and about different patterns. I enjoy piecing quilt tops, and usually do a simple quilting pattern or tie the quilt.

The quilt I have entered is one I made for my youngest daughter when she was in middle school. I’ve made quilts for each of my children over the years, as well as many baby and decorative quilts.

Scot Warnock - Introduction to Law Enforcement. Willits High School.