Tell us a little bit about you and your background.

Hi! I’m Thea and I lived in Connecticut until I was 10 and then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where I grew up. Contemporary art has been chasing me since I can remember. I was part of SITE Santa Fe’s young curator’s program in high school while I worked at the Center for Contemporary Arts and frequented Warehouse 21 formerly an art and music non-profit for teens. Originally, I was headed toward film but ended up with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Studio Art and a Bachelors of Art in Art History from the University of New Mexico. I focused on painting and contemporary art history from 1960 onward. 

In 2014, I moved to Brooklyn in hopes of immersing myself in the art world. I took a detour and ended up working in the specialty coffee industry for the entirety of my time in the city. I had been making coffee for 8 years already and when I moved to NYC I had no clue that coffee could be a career. I was obsessed because there’s always so much to learn. I managed a couple cafes, ran an events department, won some latte art throwdowns, judged the semi-finals of the US Barista Championship and ended up coaching too. I was part of a team that started a free lecture series aimed at making coffee education more accessible. We included various topics ranging from coffee leaf rust to processing methods to cafe management, and I ended up speaking on a Hospitality panel. Ultimately, I ended up in sales for a specialty chai company. Through it all, I made art and music off and on. As much as I ignored it, the artworld called again and now I’m here making art in the Naugatuck River Valley… but I’ll always be looking to subvert the dominant paradigm no matter who’s on the phone 🙂

What attracted you to work at One River School?

The job description for the ADOMS role felt like I was reading my resume. I have a true passion for spreadsheets and believe that organizing information is just as much an art form as any other. I really like people and customer service. This job is an amalgamation of the things I’ve learned from my strange work history. I’m excited to grow alongside One River!

How would you describe your team?

We are a silly group of muppets that work really hard, like to make things, and know how to enjoy a snack from time to time.

What do you think we do best at One River?

We foster and support artists. We motivate the next generation of artists while feeding that back into the creative economy. We’re contributing to getting money in artists’ pockets – a meaningful pursuit in this day and age. We’re very different from traditional art schools in that we blend art making and art history seamlessly rather than keeping them as separate entities. We encourage creating with meaning, intention, and if we’re lucky, a dash of absurdity in there too. 

Is there a special One River moment, ideally related to our adult program or an adult student, that stands out for you?

Our school has gorgeous windows that let us see our friends walking by, the erratic weather, and best of all the sky. I’ve always been enamored with clouds and Larchmont has a particularly dramatic display. After looking at computers all day, it’s so fun to go outside and look at all of the different colors inside these dreamy puffballs. One of our adult classes was in session during an epic sunset. The artists in our adult classes are very fun and engaged in making art a big part of their lives. 

I couldn’t keep the sunset to myself and knew one artist in particular was making a cloud painting. I ran in and invited everyone to come out to see the clouds. Much to my surprise, they all wanted to play too and came outside with me. We oooo-ed and awwww-ed, talked about their shapes and tried to name all the colors we could see. This was the beginning of Cloud Time – a One River Larchmont tradition. Looking at the sky and talking about colors with our teen and adult students is an invaluable experience. One of our TAS+ teens even said it was her favorite part of the day, and getting the approval of teenagers is probably one of the hardest and most rewarding endeavors. My heart is so full when our students request and participate in Cloud Time or when I get random cloud texts. I hope the tradition will carry on for years and years to come 🙂

Who or what motivates you?

Music, art, ADHD, my dog, and family.  

What do you enjoy outside of One River?

Painting, making flowers out of egg cartons, playing guitar, singing and learning as many things as possible. I love making playlists with intention, going to shows, and thinking of everyday ambient noise as soundscapes. There’s nothing better than walking my pup with headphones on and looking at the world like I’m watching a movie. I really enjoy how sound vibrations have the ability to reset your nervous system. I’m a firm believer that it should be illegal to make art without music – they’re entirely intertwined. Quantum mechanics, consciousness theories, and Carl Jung are currently quenching my thirst for knowledge these days. I went through a random French Existentialism phase recently and read all of Camus’ work, but I think I’m more of the Jungian mindset. I also love water, being in the ocean is my main goal outside of work. The beach in the winter time is so much fun too, my dog loves thrashing seaweed around. TLDR; art, music, nature, and people.