The first classroom on the right in the GT hall is Ms. Westphal. She teaches Art I, II, and studio art at CHS and is in her second year as a teacher at this school.
Ms. Westphal graduated from CHS in 2003 and says, “It was the first school I truly felt like myself. When I was a student, CHS was filled with murals, students supported each other and, had a strong sense of community. ” When asked why she wanted to return to teach art, she responded, “I always loved how open and accepting CHS was and that’s why I wanted to return to teach here”.
Art has been one of Ms. Westphal’s greatest passions dating back to childhood. She says “I always loved to create with my hands as a child, but I didn’t have an official art class until my first year in college! My favorite class ended up being a bookmaking program where we created our paper, designed and printed images, and by the end of the summer had created three different books. I was hooked on printmaking because I loved the process of creating with acid etching, photo emulsion, and image transfer.” Later, she taught herself how to use Photoshop and Illustrator.
Before arriving at CHS as an art teacher, Ms. Westphal worked for Apple, Incorporated for five years, designing and implementing training for Digital Art programming. “It was during this period that I realized how much I missed getting my hands dirty with art supplies and that I loved developing my team,” she says, “So I went back to school and earned my Masters in Arts in Teaching.” Her favorite part about art is the creative process. She says, “Exploring ideas, researching, working through challenges, planning and adjusting to failure, these are how we should interact with the world daily. We face failure every day, art can help each step of the way”.
Outside CHS, Ms. Westphal enjoys creating, playing, or adventuring with her family. She also enjoys fiber arts (knitting and crocheting), baking, and playing tabletop board games. She also is passionate about cameras and photography. If she would teach any other subject, it would be Photography, saying “Before I taught at CHS, I taught Photography 1-4 and AP 2D Design with a focus on Photography. At home, I have 12 different cameras, one I even built myself! My favorite camera that I own was made in 1914 and it still takes lovely photos”.
One of her students, Katherine Poole, speaks to “How kind and encouraging she is. She will support you in going with your art even if you don’t know if you like how it is turning out. She feels like the mom of art kids in a good way, and I appreciate how much she cares about what she does and who she is teaching. I look forward to continuing to create and seeing how my art improves with her guidance.”
Another student, Michael Slaughter, says if he had to describe Ms. Westphal in three words, they would be caring, motivating, and open-minded. He also likes how “open Ms. Westphal is about different styles of art” and he is looking forward to learning new techniques.
Ms. Westphal is an enthusiastic teacher who loves what she does and loves the CHS community. Stop by Ms. Westphal’s room and say hi to an amazingly artistic teacher!
