Ria Russo
"I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like." I used this quotation every year for thirty-six years to start my art history lessons at Archbishop Rummel High School. That quotation still holds true for me. What a changing world, this art phenomenon. There is so much to know and so much to discover that the task is never ending." I have been teaching for the past forty- two years with the last thirty-six in Fine Arts at Archbishop Rummel High School. I received my B.A. for public speaking in secondary education and my second major in art at Tulane University via Newcomb College. My primary field in the high school classroom was focused on ceramics. I studied privately with Jack Kirkland at Dukirk Ceramic Studio in New Orleans and continued my studies at Newcomb.
Other contributors to my art education are classes from the University of New Orleans, Holy Cross College, Delgado Community College, and the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. Teachers who have been a major influence in my work are M. Douglas Walton, Kathy Brombacher, Nikki Rue, Patricia Pilie, Martha S. Guthrie, and most recently Tanya Dischler.
I am member of several local art guilds including New Orleans Art Association, Metairie Art Guild, the Greater New Orleans Tole and Decorative Painting Society, the Louisiana Art Association, and I serve as President of the Jefferson Art Guild, 2009-2010. I continue my art education attending workshops with nationally acclaimed painters/instructors and continue to paint diligently exploring new techniques while my primary interest is in watercolor. I still search to this day. What I truly do know is that painting is wonderful. What a way to discover what I want to be when I grow up. The world between my mind and my brush is a great place to exist. It is refreshing, motivating, stimulating, exciting; in today’s world, the word is ‘high’. I've been exposed to art all of my life. I still can't say that I know much about it. But I do know this...I know that I like it.
