Mrs. Messer's "Watermelon" Portrait

Today I delivered the finished commissioned portrait of the two kids eating watermelon. (See the photo from January 12th blog, below.) This was for my Literature teacher at BSU. She really loved it and may even have another commission for me later on. Yay!

My literature teacher is Mrs. Neidy Messer from BSU. When I met with her today, I told her how much her classes on literature have been a major contribution to my life and have really helped me to grow as a person. As an artist, I can really relate to the creative approach of famous writers like Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack London, etc. Not only were the literature classes fun but the knowledge, insights and philosophies I studied in those classes will stay with me for the rest of my life. These classes really helped me to think about the choices I make in life.

I am reminded of an old Twilight Zone episode called "Changing of the Guard" where a literature teacher has to retire and he thinks his life's work has been a waste of time. He thinks that everything he taught his students was forgotten. Then in the middle of the night, he goes to his classroom one last time and suddenly the room fills up with former students from his class. But these are students who have died, so they are actually spirits. Then one by one, they come up to the professor to tell him about something they learned from his class that stayed with them and had a major influence on them. The professor is so touched he actually cries. It is on of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes and actually helped persuade me to choose teaching as a career.

I recently saw this episode again during a Twilight Zone marathon during New Year's Eve and I couldn't help but think about my teacher, Mrs. Messer. Only I didn't want to wait until I was a ghost to tell her how much I appreciated her! She said that she doesn't get a lot of this kind of feedback and was very glad to hear it.