Arts & Entertainment
Life Motivates Hoover High Art Teacher Janet Baran
Millions of people look at or listen to some form of art throughout each and every day. Creative artworks can be found all around us. One North Canton art teacher finds motivation for her artwork and teaching from her students and from her daughter.
Janet Baran teaches art at the using all kinds of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media. Her daughter, Rachel Baran, also is an artist, using photography and Adobe Photoshop computer software to create her own series of award-winning photographs. North Canton Patch talked with both to learn more about art imitating life. Most of the answers below are from Janet with Rachel adding her own perspective in a few areas.
Home: Janet Baran lives in North Canton and Rachel is a freshman in college at Capital University in Columbus, majoring in psychology and is in the process of adding a therapeutic art minor.
Janet’s Family: In addition to Rachel, Janet’s husband, Skip, also is a teacher at Hoover High teaching architecture and economics. She also has a stepson who lives in Chicago.
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Teaching position: Janet has been teaching at Hoover High for 16 years. She teaches entry level Art 1 and Honors Art 4 with seniors and advance placement studio art. Her honors students go onto art school or major in art in college. She teaches between 100 and 130 students each year. Before teaching with North Canton, she taught for 17 years in Albany, NY.
Credentials: Janet earned her bachelor’s degree in art at State University in Potsdam, NY, and earned a master’s in instructional technology from the University of Akron.
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Rachel’s experience: Rachel is self-taught in photography and began creating photos when her parents gave her a camera. “While I’m constantly trying to improve, I am proud of the evolution of my photographs in such a short time. I take immense pride in knowing I’m virtually self-taught. It’s amazing what a person can learn through simple observation,” Rachel said.
Favorite Book: “I gravitate towards art books.”
Favorite Color, Music and Animal: Turquoise or sky Blue is Janet’s favorite color. Her favorite music is Celtic and considers herself a “band junkie."
“I learned to play the bagpipes in my 30s and played with a pipe band for a few years.”
Janet loves birds and owns two cockatiels. “Injured birds seem to find their way to my doorstep all the time.”
Three things ‘to-do in this lifetime’:
- Open my own art studio.
- Travel to Ireland.
- Just want to see my daughter and stepson be happy and fulfilled human beings.
Role Model: Gretchen Bierbaum, a co-founder of the Hudson co-op. “She is spontaneous, fun and has such a presence.”
Memorable Quote: “An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” By Charles Horton Cooley.
Season to love: Summer because it is warm and she loves to garden. “Plus, my allergies are not flaring up.”
Movie: The latest Pride and Prejudice. “The movie has amazing photography that is a feast to the eyes. The music is also wonderful.”
A take-your-breath-away moment: “When I met my husband 24 years ago.”
Aha moment that changed her life: “When I first saw my daughter’s artwork. We had given her a camera, tripod and a remote control. Later, I saw what she was doing on Facebook. I helped her set up a Flickr site so that I could see more of her artwork. People from around the world started leaving comments and compliments.”
Recommended eats: Corkscrew Saloon in Medina.
Janet’s motivation for teaching and for her artwork: “My students keep me excited about art. I love the challenge of taking an Art 1 student and getting them to do things they didn’t think they could. My advanced students just floor me with what they can create.”
Rachel’s Motivation for photography: “I get inspired by everything but mostly by conflict. Conflicts can be internal, like the struggle to accept an idea or external such as fight with a friend or a general societal injustice. It goes back to the idea of photography as a therapeutic process and channeling of a destructive emotion into a productive one. A second motivator is the need to communicate. I’m an introverted person and find it hard to relate the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. It’s true that a photograph is worth a million words and not having to speak them is one of my favorite perks of the medium.”
Rachel’s “365” year-long self-portrait project: Rachel has been completing a “365” self-portrait project taking a photo of herself every day for a year. She feels the project has pushed her to experiment and try new locations and effects “so that every photo is different.”
Rachel’s award-winning work: Janet says that Rachel was identified as gifted in visual arts in the fourth grade. Rachel won national level Gold and Silver keys with the Scholastic art competition. Janet was able to hand her the keys at an awards ceremony at the World Financial Center in New York City.
Janet’s Community: Janet has been on the Scholastic Arts and Writing committee for a number of years. The organization promotes and awards young artists and writers.
Final Comments: “My mom’s artwork is always beautiful in my opinion. She has a way of making every piece truly interesting and incredibly realistic at the same time. She captures feeling as much or more so than a camera,” Rachel said.
“I do feel blessed to be here. I work for a fantastic school with great support. I enjoy the teaching so much because we are always working with a combination of materials and mixed media all the time and it never gets boring. Handing my daughter the Gold and Silver keys at the Scholastic regional awards was one of my greatest moments,” Janet said.