Once upon a time, Dana Parker used her vast art skills to help design major campaigns for an advertising agency, including for clients like McDonald’s.
She did that for 20-plus years and then decided to pivot.
She acquired her teaching certification and also a master’s degree in education from Dominican University.
In time, she became an art teacher at Willard Elementary School in River Forest, and if you want gauge her success in inspiring her students, all you’d have had to do was visit the River Forest Public Library in April.
There, you’d have seen boards upon boards of student artwork from youngsters spanning kindergarten through fourth grade.
“It was worth it,” said Parker, in her sixth year at Willard School, of her big pivot. “Both of my parents were teachers, and when you’re in advertising and you’re a director, you’re teaching those younger artists what to do.”
Now she’s got really young artists, like Evelyn, a first grader that had a multimedia piece on display at the library.
Evelyn created her masterpiece by dipping pieces of string into glue with water in it, then mixed it around and made squares and rectangles, before painting them with watercolors.
“I really like drawing,” Evelyn said. “We learn different techniques about art that we didn’t know about before, like weaving.”
There was a wide range of art at the show, all orchestrated by Parker. Many were flat and two-dimensional, like drawings and paintings. But consider what the third graders accomplished: A three-dimensional topical map with more than meets the eye.
The kids set a goal that they want to achieve in life, like perhaps growing up to be a professional soccer player. Every layer essentially shows the elevation of a mountain, and each layer represents a step they need to reach the top.
“They are choosing their goal and what kind of shapes and what they are building with,” Parker said, adding she has a special philosophy with regard to rules.
There are none.
“They are going to make mistakes,” she said. “Mistakes are just new ideas saying hi.
“Kids have a ton of anxiety these days,” she said. “I think they are more anxious than 10 years ago, and they need to be problem solvers. We have a lot of fun in here, and the kids know this hour they are with me is a safe space.”
Fran Arnold, who heads up marketing and public relations for the library, said the art display was part of a strategic planning goal launched in 2019.
“It extends our reach and it brings families upstairs when they might not normally, because our children’s location is on the main level,” Arnold said. “So a lot of times people will come up (and say), ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ They get a broader sense of what our offerings are.”
Owen, another first grader, had a painting of a heart in the show. Even for someone so young, plenty of thought went into his creation, made with pencils and paint brushes.
His inspiration was patterns, not unlike those you find in life.
“I tried a heart upways, and then I tried one down,” he said. “I kept doing it like that, with some to the side and some down.”
Parker is also an inspiration for Owen and her students, along with artists she introduces to them, like Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian. And what’s really interesting is that there are probably some future agency ad designers in her classes.
“There is a fourth grader (who said), ‘Can we do more graphic design work?’” she said. “He knows he is passionate about it. I just have to feed it to him a little more.”
Ed Condon, the District 90 superintendent, is pleased with what he’s seeing.
“I am glad that the community (has) the opportunity to enjoy the superb artwork created by District 90 students,” Condon said. “Thank you to all the artists, to Dana Parker, and to the River Forest Public Library for making this special show possible.”
