Jennifer Elliott believes anyone can make art and enoys teaching students at South.

Jennifer Elliott teaches ceramics and is one of four art teachers at Omaha South High School.

Elliott graduated from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota. She said that she wasn’t planning on becoming a teacher, but after she got her bachelor’s degree she actually worked in banking management first. She said she got a call saying some schools needed more advanced art teachers, so she decided to take the job at South High. Elliott has taught art at South for four years. But prior to becoming a South High teacher, she taught as a seventh-grade teacher at Marrs Middle School for 10 years.

When asked about the challenges of creative art blocks, Elliott said, “I have to think about fresh ideas. By the time block one is over, I have to pull from other ideas. Either I push through, or sometimes I have to walk away.”

She also said that one of the challenges she faces is teaching herself while teaching students. As far as the difficulties of learning to teach herself, she said that she knows “the rules, but it’s getting my body to do what it needs to do.”

When asked what she would be teaching if she was not teaching ceramics, she said she wouldn’t stop teaching pottery.

When asked if she had any dislikes of any style of pottery, she said, “not particularly,” and that she actually has problems with pinch pots. She also said that she hated learning ceramics art history.

One thing Elliott said she gets excited about is seeing the work students create. She also said she loves the people she works with.

One final piece of advice Elliott would give is that “a lot of people think they’re not good at things, but it’s really only because they haven’t practiced enough. Not everyone will become a professional artist, but everyone can be an artist. Like anything else, getting good at any art takes time, practice, and patience.”