WCFKApril featured teacher: Amy!
Meet Amy Flaherty, our April Featured Teacher!
Tell us a little about yourself!I am a project based artist living in Somerville. My work investigates the purpose of nostalgia and memory in developing identity. I am also experimenting with microcontrollers and electronic textiles into my artwork. I graduated from SMFA and Tufts University with my Masters in Fine Arts and from Skidmore College with a Bachelors in Fine Art. I was awarded four artist residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Elsewhere, Cabin-time, and the Contemporary Artist Center at Woodside.
I also have been playing classical guitar for over 20 years. I played in master classes for Jason Vieaux, Jorge Caballero, and Mark Delpriora and have performed in a sixty person guitar orchestra with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. I am currently playing Variations sur Folia de Espana et Fugue by Manuel Maria Ponce.
If you want to see my artwork or hear some Bach on guitar visit my website: www.amyflaherty.com
What’s your favorite experiment?It has to be the ping pong Ball cannon. It is an opportunity for me to lead discussions about mechanics a while the kids assemble a neat laser cut wooden cannon. My students have a lot of fun learning how to aim and fire the ping pong ball at a target.
I <3 WCFK because......I teach my students how to do activities they don’t normally get to do. Students experiment and discover by making something with their own hands. I enjoy seeing the kids grasping a chemistry or physics concept for themselves through their experience.
You have been chosen to terraform Mars! What three books do you take (for fun or otherwise)?
A photo Album - This is pretty much a given as a sentimental and nostalgic person.
Raspberry Pi User Guide by Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree - I am trying to learn more about microcontrollers and electronics. I think the Raspberry Pi would come in handy on Mars. I could make little robots or set up an internet server on Mars!
The Oryx and Crake Series by Margaret Atwood - picking just one novel is a hard one. This series is so imaginative and interesting. I think I would enjoy trying to draw her written inventions to pass the time.