Page 6 - The Clare Connection_Fall 2018 Flipbook

2 6 CLARE CONNECTION

Artist Profile

Marcia Fensin:

Your Art Should Reflect You

“I find that the more I do, the better I get,”
AS A CHILD, Clare resident Marcia Fensin’s uncle often Marcia says . “As I’ve gotten older, I’m more
brought her to the forest preserve, equipped with brushes apt to experiment and take chances .”
and watercolors. The pair would sit in nature for hours on
end, experimenting with the paints and interpretations of
the scenery.
From there, Marcia’s love for art only grew.
“I’ve become very proud of the art I do,” she says. “But it
took me a long time to get there.”

Initially, Marcia’s career didn’t directly involve art. She
attended a branch of the former Chicago Teacher’s College,
which later became Northeastern University, and went on
to primarily teach second- and fifth-graders in Chicago
Public Schools, as well as English as a Second Language.
However, Marcia incorporated art into her teaching. Having
played the piano since she was 6 years old, Marcia keyed out
march songs for her students to get up and move around.
She brought the kids to the Art Institute of Chicago, where
they had never been.

Marcia Fensin
Marcia’s teaching career later blended with her passion
for art. She designed a class with Woman Made Gallery
in Chicago, called “Finding Your Creativity,” in which she
allowed adult students to explore their artistic sides with
various mediums. One session might entail painting with
acrylics and placing the canvases together to create a mural.
Another might involve shaping something that represents
love out of self-drying clay.
The key, Marcia says, was providing her students with the
freedom and space to tap their unique sense of creativity.
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