Margaret Welty is a passionate believer that the profound benefits of making art are available to anyone.
As an art professor at Folsom Lake College for 25+ years, she has taught thousands of students — maybe of whom claimed to have no artistic talent, no creativity at all — to draw, and to draw well. Margaret has continued to focus on developing methods of teaching drawing and creativity that were inventive while being very productive for her students.
Margaret grew up surfing, swimming and playing water polo near Disneyland. Half way through her senior year in high school she was asked to teach a full on art class. At age 17 she filled in to teach the second semester of an exploratory art course at Sunny Hills High School. Then, while working on her art degrees at CSUF she also drew 50 or more pastel portraits a day at Disneyland. Between teaching at many colleges across southern California and beginning to teach art for Los Rios Community College in 1990, Welty made big to very big artwork in fiber, fabrics and dye that were site-specific and permanently installed for the interior spaces of restaurants, hotels, corporations and private homes.
Welty understands how to teach the very fearful beginner who clings to the notion that they can’t draw — insisting that they can only draw stick figures — to established artists who want to improve their drawing, painting, creating and designing skills further.
Margaret Welty has a BA and MA in studio art from California State Fullerton, with post graduate work in painting with Oliver Jackson at California State University Sacramento. Additionally, Margaret studied performance art with the late Alan Kaprow (the creator of “happenings”) at University of California San Diego.
For Margaret's official bio and media kit, go here.