{"id":890,"date":"2016-04-22T06:50:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T10:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/?p=890"},"modified":"2016-04-22T01:49:48","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T05:49:48","slug":"week-84-what-is-your-art-dedicated-to-phil-hirlemann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/?p=890","title":{"rendered":"Week #84 &#8211; What is Your Art? (Dedicated to Phil Hirlemann)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_893\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Art-a3.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-893\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-893\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-893\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Art-a3-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225\" alt=\"Made possible by Phil Hirlemann (photo credits: Grace Church)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Art-a3.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Art-a3.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Memories&#8230;made possible by Phil Hirlemann\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(photo credits: Grace Church)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Week #84 &#8211;\u00a0What is Your Art?\u00a0(Dedicated to Phil Hirlemann)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We lost two great artists this week: one, a pop icon and musical genius recognized world-wide for his unique vision and creative expression; the other, a local art\/photography teacher who touched thousands of lives by going\u00a0above and beyond the classroom for his students.<\/p>\n<p>The first, of course, is Prince.<\/p>\n<p>The second, is Phil Hirlemann. \u00a0For those of you who don&#8217;t know who this is &#8212; he\u00a0was the art and photography teacher at my local high school for over 25 years. \u00a0My Facebook feed was immediately flooded with personal accounts of how Mr. Hirlemann impacted the individual lives of his students &#8212; sometimes decades after they graduated!<\/p>\n<p>Over and over again, the same themes are repeated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How he cared for his students<\/li>\n<li>Believed in their individual abilities<\/li>\n<li>Made everyone feel equal<\/li>\n<li>Encouraged art as an outlet (for otherwise tied up and confused teenagers)<\/li>\n<li>Introduced us to other things like music and cars<\/li>\n<li>And most important &#8212; created an environment where high schoolers felt free to express themselves and be heard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He did this all\u00a0through ceramics, painting, photography, screen printing, drawing&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;otherwise known as ART.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My personal testimony is not that exciting or nearly as personal. \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t until AFTER I graduated that I had my opportunity to interact with Mr. Hirlemann &#8212; and it wouldn&#8217;t be until quite a few years later that I would realize the importance of his contribution.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hirlemann loaned me (probably against the rules) the camera and lens that I used to photograph Rob&#8217;s\u00a0senior high school football games. \u00a0Every Friday I would pick up the equipment &#8212; and every Monday morning I&#8217;d return it. \u00a0That year, I photographed every single one of Rob&#8217;s games. \u00a0But it wasn&#8217;t until Rob died that it hit home how important those photographs were to him, to his classmates&#8230;and now to me.<\/p>\n<p>At a time when art and music are being cut from school carricula &#8212; it&#8217;s worth looking at the impact they have on our lives long term. \u00a0Most other subjects require us to study someone else&#8217;s\u00a0accomplishments or genius. \u00a0Art gives us the unique opportunity to look inside and get in touch with our own vision, our own voice.<\/p>\n<p>W<span class=\"Apple-style-span\">hat students learn in art class is self-expression, the ability to create and communicate OUR unique vision to the world. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The ability to express ourselves fully, and be heard &#8212; even if it&#8217;s two decades later!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Happyness Challenge for the week ahead: &#8220;What is Your Art?&#8221; \u00a0<\/strong>Do you have a teacher or mentor who believed in you, who encouraged you, who got you in touch with your art? \u00a0Be grateful &#8212; and find a way to thank them this week. \u00a0You may not be able to track him\/her down directly &#8212; but by expressing yourself, by sharing your art with others, by encouraging someone else, or spreading happyness &#8212; you honor them and celebrate their contribution to your life.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for the memories, Mr. Hirlemann&#8230;not just the ones you\u00a0created with us in the classroom, but also the ones you taught us to create for ourselves as adults!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spread Happyness &#8212; tell us about your art\u00a0in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><em>4\/22\/16 by Grace Church<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a9 Grace Church<br \/>\ngrace@spreadhappyness.com<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Week #84 &#8211;\u00a0What is Your Art?\u00a0(Dedicated to Phil Hirlemann) We lost two great artists this week: one, a pop icon and musical genius recognized world-wide for his unique vision and creative expression; the other, a local art\/photography teacher who touched thousands of lives by going\u00a0above and beyond the classroom for his students. The first, of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}