I interviewed Mrs. Christy Dunsmore an art teacher at Port Moody Arts Center. I was interested in interviewing her because she has an amazing talent with the brush and is an excellent teacher. She’s very passionate about drawing, painting and other arts. I think her passion rubs off on her students and makes them think more about there art and makes them passionate about art. I’ve had the pleasure to be in her Teens – You Can Draw class for the past few months and I can say from experience that I’m a better artist because of her classes.

 By Christy Dunmore

What is one thing that people would be surprised to learn about your career?

I’m an artist and an art teacher now but I didn’t start out to be that. I thought I might go into research or medicine. So, even in high school I didn’t take much art, but my mom was an artist, so I did a lot of art at home. So, when I went to university the first time, I did microbiology but then I went back I did fine arts.

Why are you passionate about your job?

I think passion comes when your happy and I’m so happy doing what I do. I know when I come to work, I know it’s going to be a good day and that’s a wonderful feeling.

Indigo Lace

by Christy Dunsmore

What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?

There’s always obstacles, some of them are external and some of them are internal. For external I think there was always financial things like can I afford to go to school and I was lucky to be able to do that. Then deciding that science really wasn’t where I wanted to pursue my career. That created an internal struggle because I though oh my gosh I’ve wasted all this time, but nothing was a waste and I think any struggles that I’ve had have always pointed me into a direction that was right. I think that was a important thing to learn.

 

Go with the Flow

By Christy Dunsmore

What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?

Learn, learn, learn and learn. So how do you do that? For me, I loved going to school and it didn’t matter what I was in. So even though I said I did microbiology, I loved it and I still incorporate science into my work. So, none of that was a waste, even though I ended up not going into medicine and being a researcher. So, being open to everything that is around you. I love learning by going to school and I certainly learn even now teaching, I learn more from my students then they learn from me. It’s a mater of being open, being willing to talk to other people, getting off the iPhone and actually talk to people, learn what makes them tick. I love people so much to find out what do you do? How did you go about it? What worked? What didn’t work? And that helps me. It’s openness, curiosity and always willing to learn something.

Golden Ice

By Christy Dunsmore

What was the proudest moment of your career?

Because I’ve had such a varied career, I started out in science, then I changed and went back to university for fine arts. So, that was a proud moment, being willing to make that change and knowing that I needed to honor myself. Doing well with that allowed me to get into advertising and marketing. Then when I met my husband who was an architect, we decided to open our own firm, which is not an easy thing to do. So, we did that for about twenty-five years. So, I’m proud that we were able to do that, certainty with struggles, and ups and downs. Sticking with it and being willing to change when we needed to. So, I think it would be hard to pin down one thing. I think at each stage there where thing that allowed me to be proud. Now, what I’m proud of is that I don’t have my architecture firm, but I decided I really wanted to get back into teaching and so being able to come here and I’ve been here for the past three years has been really wonderful.

Here are some links to her classes at Port Moody Art center:

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=138590

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=184468

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=184480

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=184464

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=138594

https://pomoarts.asapconnected.com/?#CourseID=138591

All pictures taken by Megan Simpson 

All paintings painted by Christy Dunsmore