Art With Mr. Garrabrant
By Himan Basnet
Ten years into teaching art in our district, Mr Garrabrant still believes the whole thing comes down to two words: “just try.”
From Illustration to the Classroom
Mr. Garrabrant has been teaching at our district since 2016, and he still lights up when he talks about it. He teaches Art Fundamentals, Drawing, Painting, and Advanced Art Studio, the same subjects he focused on in college.
It was not some grand plan that brought him here. Those classes were the ones available when he took the job, and they also happened to be exactly what he had studied.
Before teaching, he had another path in mind, illustration and comics. A Saturday program at Columbus College of Art and Design changed that direction. Working with students there made him realize how much he enjoyed passing on what he knew.
He remembers thinking it would be fun to teach others how to do what he does. He picked teaching back in high school while looking at what he could actually do with visual arts, and he never looked back.
Looking up to John Juravich
A person he looks up to is John Juravich, a fellow art teacher and two-time state teacher of the year. Juravich has also given his own TED talk, worked with PBS, and even hosted his own show!
To Mr. Garrabrant, though, what stands out most is his attitude and dedication to doing a lot for his students. "He's always working towards being as positive as he can," he says, perfectly describing both his role model and the kind of teacher he strives to be himself.
Art Matters
Garrabrandt argues art matters more than ever because visual literacy is everything now and people rarely stop to notice how often they interact with images. He shared a quote he’s still trying to track down, “The images our great-grandparents saw in a lifetime, we now see in a week. Most of them are ads and design trying to get you to think or be something. Which is exactly why learning to read them counts.”
The feeling
In class, his goal is simple. Students should feel welcome and able to succeed, even the ones who are convinced they have no skill for art. He knows visual art can feel intimidating, but he's adamant it's a learnable skill. If WMHS could offer any other classes, he named two: printmaking and animation. Both, he thinks, would be fun and interesting for students to try.
His room runs on a smooth routine. It starts with daily drawings - students pick themselves and sketch on the board. From there, the class moves into content, whether that is a short lecture, a worksheet, or some practice in their sketchbooks. Over the semester, that turns into longer projects. The day closes with essential cleanup tasks or exit tickets to keep the studio in shape. While the core of each unit shifts, over time the structure of the warmup remains the same.
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