The Artist and Teacher, Mary Stuart Hall

Mary-Stuart Hall, one of Galloway’s UL art teachers, wasn’t always an artist. She grew up in Buckhead, majored in studio art at Sewanee University of the South, and matriculated from the University of Georgia with a Master's in art education as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art for her Master’s in Fine Art. Growing up, art was her passion, but she fought the idea of making it into a career for a while. Ms. Hall comes from a family of lawyers, and she didn’t ever think being a professional artist was even an option. She often finds it hard to explain to her parents that her art is more than just a hobby, even when it's not just for her “job.” It wasn't what she had envisioned her plan in life to be, so she had trouble breaking through. Although her family is supportive of her art, she feels they don't “get it” in ways that only artists can. Her mom often asks her why she keeps up with her art since it can be very stressful and it takes a huge emotional and physical toll on her, but she loves it. “It’s who I am, to not do it would be horrible.” She would like to make more money off of her art, but she acknowledges that the type of art she does, installations and videos, will never make a ton of money, and she's okay with it. 

Ms. Hall loved art growing up, but she wasn't always good at it. When she hears students say that they're bad at art, she relates. She started out loving photography, “Somehow, in middle school, I just decided that was what I wanted to do. I begged my parents for a camera and my dad bought me lessons.” In high school and college, she had photography teachers that inspired her a lot with whom she is still in touch. In order for her to keep pursuing photography, she had to major in art. Being an art major, she had to take classes in other art forms as well. She feared she wouldn’t be good at anything else; that was until she took sculpture. As she expected, she didn't do well at first but then sought out “to get revenge,” to prove that she was capable of mastering the art. Art has helped her understand herself more emotionally and be able to explore experiences in a way that she hadn’t known before, “The one thing I love about photography is that you really don’t think. The best pictures are just kind of intuition…I just thought it was the most incredible thing.” She mentioned that there was a large gap between when she studied art in college to when she truly considered herself an artist. “With sculpture, it’s so hard to have the equipment and to figure out how to do it, so it took me a long time to feel like “okay I’m going somewhere with this.” 

When Ms. Hall first started attending Sewanee, someone told her they were majoring in painting, and it shocked her; she had no idea that was possible. “It was more of, make good grades, sort-of career focused. I certainly did not think of art as a real career, ever.” Even after college she always thought art would be on the side, that she needed a “real” job eventually. It took her a long time to embrace that she was a true artist, “No there hasn't really been a plan.” she mentions.

Although Ms. Hall started in a corporate job fresh out of college, she soon found it wasn't for her and decided to further her work in art and teaching. “Teaching can really feed being an artist in a way that very few other things can.” Many art mediums she experiments with in school get incorporated into her personal art as well. Ms. Hall has been teaching for ten years: two at Atlanta Academy where she taught PreK through eighth grade and eight so far at the Galloway School where she has taught middle school and now exclusively teaches high school.

She had always wanted to teach at the college level and even though she still does, she is more happy teaching high school. In between graduating college and graduate school, Ms. Hall started a dark room at Emmaus House, a non-profit organization dedicated to “improving the economic and social well-being of the residents of Peoplestown and surrounding neighborhoods,” as their website states. She has been volunteering there since she was a little girl. She thinks teaching is the best way to support herself as an artist because she has breaks and gaps within her projects; it’s a different schedule than someone with a corporate job. 

As an artist, Ms. Hall feels that she “does a lot” meaning she often has multiple projects in the works simultaneously but she always feels that she can be doing more in terms of her artistic career. She says one of the difficult aspects of being a professional artist is that at times there will be a weighing need to finish a project, website, or any other pressing matter; but there are also moments of researching and formulating ideas, which is really hard to quantify. Yes, Ms. Hall could essentially go to her studio and work on her art after teaching, but she is often too exhausted. She also mentions, though, that Galloway has been more than supportive of her career as an artist in many ways. Galloway provides any equipment Ms. Hall wants to try or her desire for a summer program in her downtime. For example, to experiment with 4x5 film negatives, Galloway provided a grant for her, and she now uses that in her art as well. 

Art has changed Ms. Hall’s life in many ways, “it opened up places that I never knew were there.” For her first photography critique, she took pictures of many roads and paths and one of her teachers asked her “What are you running away from?” “It was kind of cheesy, but I burst into tears,” Ms. Hall mentions. She realized that her photography was a window into her emotions in a way that was incredibly powerful. 

Although the journey to becoming an artist has been a long one for Mary-Stuart Hall, she has gone on to make art installations for The Beltline, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and various museums. 

By Peyton Louie