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GEE SAYS LET IN THE LIGHT Mr. Gary Gee, a Jacksonville State University art professor, says he decided to pursue a career in teaching only after he achieved total confidence in his abilities to instruct. "I never taught until I was sure that I knew what I was doing. If you had asked me if I was going to be a teacher when I was in high school, I would have laughed at you. I had no idea. I remember that I wanted to be a teacher in elementary school simply because my dad was a teacher. I was around a lot of family educators. Teaching is in my blood." Mr. Gee, who teaches drawing, painting and color theory, claims that his favorite class to teach is any class where "more than four students really want to learn something instead of just doing what they have do for an A. "When students come back and say 'Now I understand,' when you illuminate a dark area in someone's life because they don't understand and they don't have a direction to go in, when you open everything up for them, it is amazing. I try to teach the idea of not going through life slamming all your doors and windows closed, but to leave them open so you have a house of light and understanding in the end." Mr. Gee has become a treasured instructor to many of his students. Students look to him for guidance and strive to achieve what he has, not only in his artwork but in his life as well. "I have tried to make it easier for my students so that they can be much better than I am in everything they do. Sometimes in life, you find that the people you want to help the most will not accept it. I take it as an honor that they value my help and instruction. I'm touched by it. I think of all the absolutely wonderful professors I had that shined so much light into my life. I only hope I can pass it on to my students. I have had a tremendous amount of influence from these professors and from my parents, so I feel that I can't take full credit. I am merely brightening the light that they gave to me." So many ingenious works have come from the creative recesses of Mr. Gee's mind that he cannot pick a favorite work. "I don't think people should be judged by one work. I don't want people to look at one work I've done and judge my whole life by it, because I have done so many." Mr. Gee has wasted no time in pursuing the things he loves almost as much as art and says he will continue to do so. "I've done so much in my life. I want to pursue my dreams. I would like to finish up my pilot's license. I will most definitely be painting and drawing -- anything that has to do with art whether it is photography or just studying art. I won't give art up until I go down or until they put me down." |
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