Host Spotlight: Dirty your smock with Creative Artist, Alexandra Rozenman
From Moscow to Boston, and many places in between. This week we explored the intricate history of Alexandra Rozenman, artist and teacher. She first discovered her passion for art while she was a child living in the Soviet Union and brought it with her to the United States where she was able to develop her love for it further. She teaches her students to incorporate their life experiences into their own versions of famous paintings, which makes every student’s work unique. We wanted to hear more about her journey in becoming an art teacher, so we caught up with her last week to find out!
Creative Artist and Teacher, Alexandra Rozenman
Verlocal: We are so excited to have you with us, Alexandra. And we understand you’ve had a fascinating life. Tell us about it!
Alexandra: I was born into a dissident family in Moscow, Russia. After 10 years of studying in a Soviet Art School I went on to take classes from a group of free thinking artists who had established an underground studio and my own ideas started forming in my head.
My family was part of the decade’s wave of Russian Jewish emigration. We immigrated in 1989. I was only 18. In 1991, alone I landed in New York City because I knew that “this is what real artists do”. The reality turned out to be more complex. My three lonely and confusing years in New York have been challenging in a basic sense of the word. I was struggling both as an artist and as a citizen, working on re-inventing and inventing myself at the same time. Through pure luck I met with a retired ballet dancer Catherine Levine, who noticed my teaching abilities and gave me a chance as an art teacher in her Red Chair Studio in Brooklyn. There and then my ability for creative teaching came back to me.
In 1994, I was admitted to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston so I moved there. My experience during that time was a teaching assistantship for Professor Gerry Bergstein. We worked as a team. It was there when I realized that the mediocre teacher tells, the good one explains, the superior one shows, and the great one inspires. My teaching jobs after graduation included Intensive Freshmen Program at the Boston Art Institute, Art Instructor in Solomon Schechter Day School and Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Teaching art as a process became a core of all my teaching philosophy.
From 2002 to 2009 I lived in Minneapolis, MN where my participation in a Woman Artists Registry of Minnesota as a mentor was a big part of my life and a new step in teaching. After spending a decade living and teaching art in Minneapolis, I returned to Boston. Reuniting with my old students from Cambridge I started teaching privately, and in 2010 through using the power of public media was able to open my own Art School that functions today as a regular Continuing Education and After-school venue. It is called “Art School 99”.
Student from Alexandra’s Children and Parents Painting Intensive Class (not offered on Verlocal)
Verlocal: Tell us about your passion and how you came to teach it. What make your classes unique?
Alexandra: My mother is a creative teacher. Growing up in our small apartment in Moscow, Russia, I was always curious about how she worked with her students. When I was 5, she let me participate in rhythmic classes and listen to poetry readings. All my school years, I watched my mother teaching different programs, and my own ideas started forming in my head. While I was in High School, my elementary school teacher allowed me to teach in an after-school program for her classes. Teaching, something I always fantasized about since I was a little girl, became a big part of my life.
A student’s painting from one of Alexandra’s classes.
Verlocal: You’re our first Boston artist that we’ve interviewed. What would you recommend to someone who just moved to Boston?
Alexandra: Like all old cities in the world, Boston is divided into small neighborhoods and it is fun to walk or drive through them, and compare and learn why they are so different. Like all other cities, Boston has been kicked by gentrification in the last 15 years or so, and many things have changed and keep changing.
I love Isabelle Gardner Museum with its history and beauty. After the New wing was added a few years ago the power of old beauty is more visible then ever!
And if you like pizza and think that there is no pizza in Boston there is a secret place all the way deep in East Boston called Santarpios! Check it out — you will never forget this experience.
Verlocal: Tell us about your favorite moments during your career!
Alexandra: My first favorite moment in my career was when I was living in Twin Cities and I taught a summer art class at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The class was for high school students so they could prepare their portfolios for art school. It was so exciting to see them growing everyday and I loved seeing when they got accepted into the art schools they had applied for. It was a great summer!
My second favorite moment in my career was the couples’ class I did around Valentine’s Day. A lot of the people who signed up for this class were actually single and came to the class to meet people, so that was really interesting. I would give each couple only one canvas to work with and they thought it was weird at first but eventually warmed to the idea. The couples realized it was fun to work together. The art therapy educator in me thought of this idea and I loved doing it. It was also a very successful class.
Student’s and their paintings from Alexandra’s Family Workshop class.
Verlocal: Thanks Alexandra so much, for interviewing with us. It’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you about your exciting career. Do you have any last words you want to say about your passion for art?
Alexandra: The fact that I am bilingual influences my way of thinking. Being surrounded by a foreign language makes my creative process a wonder, a search, a feeling of an absurd tragedy of human life and society. I allow practice, images or final work itself, I test theories. I am a wonderer. My art explores the world through a mixture of autobiography, symbolism and philosophy.
To connect with Alexandra check out her classes on Verlocal. She host a variety of painting workshops as well as an open art lab for people newer to the art scene who want to explore their creative sides. We would love to hear about your experiences with this passionate host. Feel free to connect with her and leave some amazing reviews! Thank you, Alexandra!
