Betsy DiJulio & Erin Edwards
Betsy DiJulio, Teacher
I found my way to serious art-making
while employed as the education director of the Contemporary Art Center
of Virginia. I later pursued a teaching
career, and during those first few years
as a part-time practicing artist, I created several series of oil pastel paintings dealing with universal themes in a magical realist
vein, using my sketchbook primarily for planning purposes. In more recent years, my sketchbook has become a
place for the exploration of new imagery, ideas, and media.
Nowadays, I seek to preserve something of the imme-
diacy, dynamism, and experimentation found in my
sketchbook, while also striving to pen-
etrate so deeply into the personal that
I intersect the universal at points of
shared humanity.
Betsy DiJulio is a national board certified
art teacher at Princess Anne High School
in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is the
2010 Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Citywide Teacher of the Year.
Erin Edwards, Student
My job as an artist is to take something
as vast as art and place my identity
within it. Hallmarks of my artistic
identity are a mixed-media approach,
thick layered backgrounds, and hidden
meanings. I communicate my ideas
metaphorically, using different strategies to create relationships within my pieces that suggest
connections and associations without being too blunt or
obvious. Each mark, tone, word, and detail has a meaning.
Currently, I am exploring American history, letting
both my knowledge and my emotions guide me as I draw
and paint from observation, photographs, and my imagination. I strive to create pieces that, as Vincent van Gogh
wrote, “have a life of their own that derives from the
painter’s soul.”
Erin Edwards is a twelfth-grade AP
studio art student at Princess Anne
High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Call for Entries: SchoolArts is recognizing the work of high-school students and teachers from around the country, and we
are looking for more art to be featured. Please send images of your work and the work of one of your students, along with
100-word artist’s statements, on a CD to Nancy Walkup, Editor, SchoolArts, 2223 Parkside Drive, Denton, TX 76201.
