Art teachers find self-care through connection and creativity
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Self-care has become the focal point of art teacher Timothea Biermann’s life after the last few years of dealing with the stress of a teachers' strike in Denver Public Schools and working remotely with students during the pandemic. In 2021, she found a way to nurture herself by connecting with other art teachers by starting a group called the Chameleon Collective.
“It fulfills our mental health in a way that we haven’t experienced,” Biermann explained.
The Chameleon Collective is a group of 11 art educators who create artwork together and give each other feedback. After a field trip to Boulder art gallery Seidel City, Biermann and fellow art teacher Elizabeth Delap came up with the idea of creating a positive and safe outlet to help them and other educators process the recent pressures and trauma from teaching.
“I guess I was a little lonely and I wanted to get other art teachers together to make art for ourselves and fill our buckets so that we can be better humans,” added Biermann.
Delap said one of the more impactful experiences for her has been watching how fellow artists use something as simple as a canvas in various ways when creating their art. “Some people are sewing on the canvass, some are painting on the canvass, some people are making collage,” she added, explaining that looking at each finished piece feels similar to opening a gift. “Like ‘wow look at the different things that have happened to it since I saw it last!’”
Chameleon Collective shows their work at Blue Tile Gallery in Englewood, which acts as a workspace and meeting area for the teachers. They painted a large colorful mural on the south side of the building that was inspired by a Carl Sagan quote, “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it’s forever.”
Collective member Nik Arnoldi said the group has made him and the other teachers feel less isolated. “My favorite part of this collective is it allows us the freedom to not feel like we’re in this alone. We’ve got each other to rely on,” he added. “We take on these projects, but it’s not just one of us, it’s all of us. So, we can lift up more voices, we can do more work, we can do bigger projects and wilder things.”
The group decided to use chameleon in its name because actual chameleons are known to be methodical, calculating, easily adaptable to its surroundings, and — of course — their ability to change colors, all of which are metaphors for what the collective is trying to achieve for its members.
“We are able to lift each other up and promote each other’s artistic careers, and to be more than an educator. We want to be filling our own artistic buckets as well,” added Biermann.
Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at lindseyford@rmpbs.org.