Office Hours

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi everybody. My name's Giselle, and I'm the digital marketing strategist here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours, and today I'm here with Adrianna. Adrianna, what's up?

Adrianna Elias:
What's up? How are you?

Giselle Kowalski:
I'm good. You got to speak with Shannon Faseler. How was that?

Adrianna Elias:
It was amazing. She's an art professor here, and she has the coolest office I've ever seen.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, she has so many cool paintings around her and behind her. Even her office was painted a certain color too.

Adrianna Elias:
It was.

Giselle Kowalski:
She had different colored walls and everything.

Adrianna Elias:
It was so comfortable in there. I had so much fun.

Giselle Kowalski:
What did you learn from that conversation with her?

Adrianna Elias:
I learned that we both have this love for our hometown, but we had to leave it before we realized how much we love it. We have an appreciation looking back.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah. We hope you enjoyed this conversation between Adrianna and Shannon Faseler.

Adrianna Elias:
Can you introduce yourself and what you teach here at Texas State?

Shannon Faseler:
Sure. My name is Shannon Hayes Faseler. I teach Intro to Fine Arts, Curatorial Practices, and Honors Fine Arts. Mostly teaching within the School of Art and Design, but also in the Honors College.

Adrianna Elias:
For our icebreaker we're going to ask you, what is your most used emoji?

Shannon Faseler:
The one with the top of the skull missing and the brain smoking, like blow your mind kind of emoji.

Adrianna Elias:
Oh, OK. I was like, "I don't know what you're talking about." Mine is probably the heart.

Shannon Faseler:
Yeah, I love that.

Adrianna Elias:
Where'd you grow up and how did that affect you as an artist?

Shannon Faseler:
I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. When I was growing up, I couldn't wait to get out. It affected me in that it forced me to want to know more about the world, or get out and see more things. But now I really appreciate the culture of San Antonio.

Adrianna Elias:
The Alamo is the only thing I really know about San Antonio, honestly.

Shannon Faseler:
It's really got a very diverse culture. A lot of older buildings. It has a great gallery and art scene, better than Austin. I appreciate that now. But back when I was in school, I couldn't wait to leave.

Adrianna Elias:
I feel the same way. I wanted to get out of my hometown too because it's like there's more. Right, let's go back in time. When was the moment you knew this was it? That this was the thing you wanted to do forever?

Shannon Faseler:
I was bio pre-med in school when I started.

Adrianna Elias:
Oh, wow.

Shannon Faseler:
Because I had made art my whole life, and I thought I couldn't make a living doing it. I thought I'd study biology and that I would make art on the side. After one year of being bio pre-med at UT, I realized that I could not not have art as a major part of my life. I was depressed. I was unhappy. I was miserable. I flipped it, and I switched to an art major with a biology minor. That was the moment when I realized that I needed to be making art for the rest of my life. What are you qualified to do with a master's of fine arts? Teach, but I ended up really liking it. I think I'm decent at it.

Adrianna Elias:
Giselle remembered you, so I think maybe you're more than decent, honestly.

Shannon Faseler:
Well, I hope. I feel like when I don't feel like I am anymore then it's time to find something else because I don't want to be one of those people that sticks around and students hate.

Adrianna Elias:
Right. What was your first job?

Shannon Faseler:
My first job, I was a camp counselor.

Adrianna Elias:
Like a summer camp?

Shannon Faseler:
Yes. I taught a bunch of things I have no business teaching. I taught golfing lessons. I don't golf. I taught art, but it was like macaroni necklaces and pinch pod ashtrays.

Adrianna Elias:
Ashtrays for the parents?

Shannon Faseler:
Yes.

Adrianna Elias:
I read that after your undergraduate studies, you received your MFA in painting. You were in the University Gallery in California. What was that like?

Shannon Faseler:
I finished my undergrad at UT, and I went to Chicago for my MFA. Then after graduating in Chicago, I moved to Southern California. I took some jobs working in museums. Then I got my first teaching job. I taught one semester, and then the chair of the art department asked me if I wanted to manage the gallery. I'd worked in museums and galleries almost my whole life. I'd done all the jobs in museums and galleries, so I thought, yeah, I can do this. It was a ton of fun to get to organize exhibitions specifically geared for students that are non-art majors. To come into a gallery and feel comfortable in a gallery and learn something, that was a great challenge, and I really enjoyed it.

Adrianna Elias:
I don't know much about art, so I feel like going into those kinds of spaces can be intimidating.

Shannon Faseler:
It can.

Adrianna Elias:
Having someone behind it all to be like, "These other people that don't know art, I need to create something for them too."

Shannon Faseler:
Yeah, it can be really intimidating. What I try to do is break that down and realize that you shouldn't be. That everybody should feel comfortable walking into any space with art and just feeling how they feel. They don't have to feel stupid. They don't have to feel like this isn't for them, just being comfortable.

Adrianna Elias:
I like that. You are following your passions and making it into a career. What keeps you pushing forward and pursuing your dreams versus a paycheck?

Shannon Faseler:
I don't feel like I have a choice. I'm an artist, and I'm an educator, and that's who I am. I have to make art. I just don't see another option.

Adrianna Elias:
I know that a lot of your work now is based on the effects of climate change in the environment and our community. What specific events made you interested in this topic?

Shannon Faseler:
I was making work since grad school that was about floods and droughts. In 2004, it was Katrina, Hurricane Katrina. Those images of the water and the flooding and the homes and the devastation that really caught my attention, and I became really interested in extreme weather. I was really interested in visible effects of extreme weather. In Katrina, you could see the water and you could see the mold. In Texas when there's a drought, you just look around and you see it. It's very visible. I think I was looking through a National Geographic, and there was a photograph of this extremely skinny polar bear on a tiny piece of ice in the middle of the ocean. It just devastated me. I started doing more research on ice melt and the populations of animals that were affected by that and glacial recession. That kind of started that series and I'm still working on that series.

Adrianna Elias:
It's really beautiful. I looked at your website and everything.

Shannon Faseler:
Thank you.

Adrianna Elias:
I love it. Aside from your work with the art of decay and climate change, what inspires you as an artist to continue to teach here?

Shannon Faseler:
The students. When I first started teaching, I was super idealistic. I was like, "I'm going to change everybody." I realized relatively quickly that if I can get 10% of my classes to look at something differently than they did before, or think about something differently than they did before, or walk into a museum that they maybe wouldn't have gone into before, then I've won. I teach huge classes, so 10% is still a lot. Texas State has such a diverse student population. I really do enjoy that. I taught art majors at UT, and it was very different. They were already on board. They were art majors. This was what they wanted to do with their lives. Here I teach general ed students. That, to me, is an opportunity.

Adrianna Elias:
What parts of your visual arts have found its way back into your teaching?

Shannon Faseler:
When you're making art, you have to think about who you're making work for. I have to learn to communicate in a visual way that speaks to what I want to say with my work, and speaks to, for me, the broadest possible audience. Figuring that out in my studio practice has helped me to figure that out in the classroom. I try very hard to not speak in overly academic language. Not dumb it down because that's not at all what I'm doing. My visual art practice has contributed to that, to how I express myself verbally.

Adrianna Elias:
Something that I appreciate with teachers is when they don't make you feel stupid, but they get down to your level. Especially with art because sometimes some people don't see the same thing, so it's amazing that you do that.

Shannon Faseler:
Thanks.

Adrianna Elias:
Yeah. What have your students taught you here at Texas State?

Shannon Faseler:
My students have taught me resilience. A lot of Texas State students are here because they want to be here. This is a crazy time that we're living in. You still show up. A lot of the students, again, I try to focus on the positive, have really taught me about the value to them of their education. Specifically working in the art department, there's a really diverse population of students. A lot of identity issues. They go to the school which is maybe not the most accommodating school in Texas for that, but they'd still show up. They do it and they try to change it. That kind of stuff, it just makes me very happy.

Adrianna Elias:
It makes me happy too. I'm like, "Oh my God, I can't believe my generation's actually showing up." Sometimes it's hard to believe they do it, but we do it every time.

Shannon Faseler:
You do.

Adrianna Elias:
What was the most challenging part about your college experience?

Shannon Faseler:
I worked a lot, so it took me five years to graduate. But I worked a full-time job and a part-time job the whole time. That was challenging, but I don't regret it at all. I love school, so I would stay longer if I could've.

Adrianna Elias:
I'm like that.

Shannon Faseler:
That was probably the most challenging part was just managing and balancing the work and school.

Adrianna Elias:
Do you have any advice for managing time? I think I'm in the same boat. How'd you do it all?

Shannon Faseler:
You have to be realistic. For me, I had to realize that something had to give. I couldn't do it all. If it meant taking 12 hours instead of 15 hours, or dropping back my hours at work and not going out as much with my friends because I didn't have the money. That took me two years to realize that, so I got a little bit behind. I think I learned a really valuable lesson.

Adrianna Elias:
It's like a hard lesson, I think.

Shannon Faseler:
Yeah. You can't beat yourself up about it. You just have to be honest with yourself what you can and cannot do, and realize that this is for me so that I can succeed.

Adrianna Elias:
I want to talk about this painting right here. It looks like a toilet that has Christmas lights strung across it in a bathroom. Do you want to talk about this? You made this?

Shannon Faseler:
No.

Adrianna Elias:
No? OK.

Shannon Faseler:
No. In grad school, we had this floor that had all of our studios on it. It was this long shotgun floor, and there were studios on either side of this hall. One of the guys that I went to grad school with across the hall was painting these realistic images of everyday things. I always loved his work. When we all graduated, you had to clean out your studio and move everything out. Various people addressed this in different ways. I destroyed most of my work because I couldn't move it, and I didn't want it just to be hanging out. A lot of people just left their work in the studio, so I literally went through people's studios and took the work they left in the studio.

Adrianna Elias:
That's smart though.

Shannon Faseler:
I took that. I took these really massive paintings that are in my house. It was great.

Adrianna Elias:
Nice. Do you remember who that was?

Shannon Faseler:
I want to say Tim something, but I don't... I think it might say on the back.

Adrianna Elias:
No, that's awesome. I really like that. It's sentimental. You have something to talk about when you look at it.

Shannon Faseler:
I have a variety of tastes in art. Everything in here is from somebody I know or went to school with. The piece behind you is made by dropping blood on a slide and then putting it as a scanner.

Adrianna Elias:
Oh, wow.

Shannon Faseler:
A friend of mine who's a photographer. I like a lot of different things.

Adrianna Elias:
That's awesome.

Shannon Faseler:
Thanks for asking.

Adrianna Elias:
What has been the most affirming moment for you in your career?

Shannon Faseler:
It's little things. Like you say you went to the Musée d'Orsay and you enjoyed looking at what you were looking at. Or students will email me a year later saying they're traveling with their parents and they went into the Louvre and they really appreciate it in a different way. I love that. That makes me so happy. I had a student recently who emailed me, and she said that she had to do a critical review. She had to go to a play, and she went with the person who was sitting next to her because they were talking. They said, "Let's just go to the play together," and now they're getting married.

Adrianna Elias:
Oh, wow.

Shannon Faseler:
She was like, "We met in your class, and our first date was the play." I was just like, "Oh my God." Just the fact that students feel comfortable reaching out to me and telling me about these things. I love that.

Adrianna Elias:
The connection stays forever.

Shannon Faseler:
Yeah.

Adrianna Elias:
That's awesome. Meeting in class and then like-

Shannon Faseler:
Isn't that adorable?

Adrianna Elias:
Yeah. That's amazing. Perfect love story. That was the last question. But now if you have anything to add, anything you want to speak to the people?

Shannon Faseler:
This is an amazing time in your lives, and it's only going to happen this once. Realize that it's a gift. It's a gift to be educated. It's a gift to go to college. It's a gift to live this life that y'all are living right now. Take advantage of it and appreciate it.

Adrianna Elias:
OK, noted. Well, thanks for being on the podcast.

Shannon Faseler:
Yeah, absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

Adrianna Elias:
Thank you for listening to this episode of Office Hours. We hope you enjoyed this conversation. Make sure you tune in next time to learn more about the experiences of our amazing Texas State faculty. Also, remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at TXST. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University network represent the views of the host and guest, not of Texas State University. Once again, I'm Adrianna and I'll see you next time. Bye.