MEET TEACHING ARTIST, ISABELLE!
AN INTERVIEW WITH INTERN, MICHIKO WILD //
MEET ISABELLE MARSHALL
Isabelle is grateful to have grown up in a family that celebrates art. She grew up drawing and painting with her grandmother who was an artist. “I think that's a big reason why I am an artist and why I continue to pursue art, because I do think it takes a little bit of bravery—because there are so many people out there saying that this is a waste of time, when I would totally disagree! I feel making art is actually one of the most important things we can do.”!”
Isabelle spent her childhood growing up in Seattle (growing up where?) engaged in a multitude of arts, from drawing and painting to singing and theater. She even took classes at Coyote in furniture painting and fashion design. When she began college, she moved from a focus on performance arts to visual arts and animation, but. Sshe sees animation as a multimedia art form that combines storytelling, music and visuals. As a child, she said, she approached traditionally different schools of art as all-in-oneone-in-the-same, the same thing at their most basic elements. . “I liked that Coyote offers all these different art forms because the foundation of that is that they really are the same thing. Whether you're taking cooking or welding, there's something that's connecting the different creative tools and different ways of communicating. It's more like getting back to what is art is about than combining things that are different.; I think that in their genesis, they're all kind of similar.”
In recent times during quarantine, she has spent more time drawing and writing. “I'm reluctant to call it even a part of my art practice because it's just processing being alive,” , she says about her writing. To Isabelle, particularly during quarantine when there is so much isolation between people, she sees art as a powerful tool of connection. “For me and my personal work, I'm interested in that internal experience being brought out and how can we can connect on these things that we experience privately. and hHow can I communicate to someone about what my feelings are, orn what my experience of life is, and find some mutual ground through this art?.”
Isabelle also continues her art practice as an instructor at Coyote. True to her childhood love of many arts, she teaches the a wide range of mediums, including stop motion animation, comics, painting, fashion, and home décor. Isabelle sees teaching as a creative pursuit and thinks it’s a great way to share her enthusiasm about art with others. She spoke speaks often to the ways in which young artists are talked down to when it comes to art. “Coyote really treats young people with integrity and like you are a real artist, and I think as a young person that's very rare. They don’t coddle you and treat you like a little kid that’s learning this, like, ‘That’s so cute that you want to learn how to paint.’ It's more like, ‘You want to learn to paint? Alright, here's a real artist and you're a real artist and you're doing this!’ And I think that as a young person that was is really important and inspiring."
As an instructor, Isabelle sees sharing art as a deeply brave and vulnerable act, one that is difficult to do, but incredibly powerful for youth. “Art gives you strength;, I think it gives you options when you don't feel like you have options. I think that that aArt presents a way path through many things that feel very difficult. I very much believe that the images we look at and the information that surrounds us and the media we take in affects us, so I think supporting youth in giving them tools to express their stories and their ideas is really important because that will effect change in the world.”…so I think supporting youth in giving them tools to express their stories and express their ideas is really important because that will effect change in the world.”