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There are some dreams that wait for half a lifetime to surface,hidden away in a long- forgotten treasure box along with remnants ofrock collections, scraps of velvet dress-up clothes, and noteswritten in top-secret code.
Learning to paint was one of those dreams for me. So when one ofmy friends completed an impressive oil painting after just a fewmonths of instruction, I decided to sign on for some lessons at BillTeeple Studio, where, I found out, Bill Teeple really can take you tothat magical place called art.
On a typical Tuesday night six students work quietly over theireasels and artist's desks. It's the kind of spacious, high-ceilingedplace that looks bright and cheerful even at night.
Bill sits down to talk to me about what I want to do. He exudeswisdom and compassion, and there's a twinkly quality to his smilethat has to do with humor and joy. I find the courage to say I'd liketo paint with oils.
He starts me drawing that first evening, and shows me whichpencils to use, soft or hard, and exactly how to handle them. "I wantyou to gradually 'grow' the dark areas," he says as he demonstrates.It's easy to follow his instructions.
"This is really pretty," he says, after I've been drawing for awhile. "You could keep going, but you could also stop here." It's byfar the best drawing I've ever done in my life. I'm excited.
"Wait until you start painting," he says. "Painting's all aboutfeeling." He says that in a traditional art school, a studentcouldn't start painting until they'd done two years of drawing first."But I let the student go to the area of most charm."
This is a hallmark of Bill's teaching, I find.
"Bill doesn't have his own agenda other than to bring out thestudent's individual talent," says Stacy Hurlin, a painter. "Andthat's more supportive than anything I've ever known before."
So for the teenage girls, Bill lets them draw from fashion models,and they learn all the fundamentals of figure drawing. For the boys,it's often Japanese animé. For adults it's whatever type ofart they're attracted to, or that draws on their particularstrengths. He has 60 students of all different ages and levels ofexperience, and the studio walls are covered with student art. I'mimpressed by the skill and depth of expression.
I ask Bill about a tall, skinny canvas with bold geometric figurespainted on black. "That's by Tony de Freitas, one of my youngstudents," he says. ""He went through the usual lessons, but I wantedto know where his passion was and one day his eyes lit up and hesaid, 'Abstract!' And this stuff just keeps pouring out of him."
Another pair of paintings on the wall attract me with theirluminous light, reminding me of Vermeer.
"Those are Janet Higgins'," says Bill. "She came in about a yearago and I started her painting. Then I had a feeling that NormanLundin's style was perfect for her. She got it immediately, thatpainting still life is about looking at objects in consciousnessuntil you basically fall in love with them. You get into the mysteryof existence when you do still life."
Janet says of the experience, "I felt a flow of wonder. Billinspired me to look, to see and to look again. In looking, everythingflowed, and whatever form this flow took was always beautiful andwhole and joyful. The joy of creative expression is the essence ofBill's teaching."
I'm only a beginner, but I already feel the flow of wonder. Rightnow I'm working on some "little paintings," an exercise Bill designedto help his beginning students learn to mix colors intuitively. It'scharming and fun and easy, and I'm in love with the process. I findmyself seeing shapes, colors, and even my own craft of writing in newways.
The classes are like taking a bath in art itself. As Bill giveseach student individual attention, he might respond to the work witha riff on the creative process, on some aspect of art history, or artand consciousness. All of us listen while we work, and we all laughtogether at the jokes. And sometimes we crowd around to see himdemonstrate a new technique, or to admire another student's work.
It's a safe place to learn, and we all feel that.
"Bill sees the greatness in everyone," says Fauna White. "He'sable to see your best qualities and point to them in case you're noteven aware of them. He encourages you to develop the spark of trueart he sees."
Fauna had never drawn much before, but after just a few months oflessons with Bill, she submitted a drawing to the Regional Iowa ArtAssociation Show and won a blue ribbon.
While he's happy when his students win awards, Bill says it's allabout the process, not the product. He's done a lot of deep thinkingabout art and consciousness over the past 35 years and has masteredjust about every medium. At U.C. Berkeley he studied painting andsculpture, and was most of the way through a master's degree when hequit to become a teacher of T.M. This decision was to change hisexperience of art forever, and start him on the quest that he's stillpursuing today.
At one point, in the mid-70s, he collaborated with his then wifeLynn Durham, and their paintings appeared on cards and calendarsthroughout the country. "I was famous enough to find out that fame'snot what it's all about," says Bill with a laugh.
After that, he spent years focusing on the integration of art andlife. But he never stopped drawing, and even while moving around keptcreating his tiny drawings that illuminate inner celestialworlds.
It's the fact that he's transited the whole range of artisticexpression himself, and has been inside the art world and isrespected by other serious artists, that he can be such a perfectguide to others. If you get stuck, he not only knows a technique, atool, a trick that is just right to take you to the next step, but heknows how to make you see the work anew, to see the wholeness whichyou've momentarily lost a connection to.
"It's rare to find a great artist who's also a great teacher,"says student Christine Davies. "And Bill is art personified."
In one class he can help serious artist Sharon Koehlblingerassemble an admissions portfolio for top art schools, and then showan investment manager who's never painted before how to make hisfirst color wheel.
"So you mix yellow and red to make orange," says Bill.
"Really!" says the investment manager.
And Bill is right there with him, experiencing the wonder. "Isn'tthat amazing?" he says. "I've never gotten over it."
Talking with him about art one morning in his studio, I finallyget it. Bill can transform all these people into artists becausethat's what he's actually seeing in them. To a true wizard, afterall, it isn't a magic trick, it's his reality.
"I'm as in awe as anyone else," he says, "to see what thisperson's artistic gift is. I try to locate the very specificcharacter of the student and strengthen that person's unique vision.And then teach them the language so he or she can actually expressit."
Bill says he approaches teaching the same way that he approachesart. For him, the classroom is a canvas, and the students are part ofhis life's work.
He has visions, dreams, and his vision keeps getting realized inever-widening circles, first with his classes at Bill Teeple Studio,then with the opening of Gallery 51 East to exhibit the best art inFairfield. Ultimately, he wants to establish Fairfield as a centerfor the arts.
"It's often a feeling, why a person comes to art class," he says."They're drawn to this magic experience because they find it a way tocomplete themselves and to find wholeness. So I see myself as afacilitator. I want to open people's eyes to the magic and perfectionin everything at all times, because that's the reality."
For information on group art classes or private lessons contactBill Teeple Studio at 469-6252.
Linda Egenes is a freelance writer and author of Visits with theAmish: Impressions of the Plain Life. She can be reached at legenes@mum.edu.
