About Me

Hi, I am Mary Trigg. Welcome to art class! Teaching art has been my dream job since I was in second grade and had an amazing art teacher named Ms. Debold. She fostered creativity in everyone in our class, made art connect to our other subjects and made me want to come to school. I hope I can be like her for my students. I continued taking every art class I could for electives. I took my first ceramics class in high school and got hooked on clay. I love how clay feels in my hands, and how I can manipulate and heat a block of earth into something useful; or at least into a completely different form and substance. Intermediate and Advanced art students will try out clay in class. In college and graduate school I studied economics, studio art and education. This year, 2021-22, will be my 15th in the classroom. I taught grades PK, K, 3,4, and 5 before moving up to middle school art 4 years ago.

After art, my favorite subject is science. You may have heard the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) before. Well, I think we should always use STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART, and Math) instead because art, math, and science go hand in hand. We make a lot of connections to biology, chemistry, engineering, and earth science in my class. Have you ever made a pattern or appreciated one? Have you ever noticed how pleasing the proportions are on a building or statue? If you have, then you've already connected math and art.

When I'm not teaching, I run a small business making and selling my own artworks. You can see some examples in the photos above. I mostly do ceramics because that's what I focused on in college and it is the medium I enjoy most, but I've added linoleum block printing to my repertoire lately and have always done a little painting. Creatures I consider under appreciated such as bats, rats, roaches, nutria, and flies are some of my favorite subjects because I enjoy reading and learning about these animals and the important roles each one plays in our ecosystem. Also, I often like things that other people think are strange or gross. I also sculpt economists because I find their theories and economic history interesting too. I listen to a lot of Planet Money and Science Friday podcasts while I'm working in my studio so the subject matter often pops into my head when I'm planning surface decorations. I continue to learn and improve a lot through failure and experimentation. Talk about connecting math, and ELA to art!