{"id":3537,"date":"2021-11-09T19:56:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T19:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3537"},"modified":"2025-03-27T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T19:36:16","slug":"point-of-view-karen-macmurray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/point-of-view-karen-macmurray\/","title":{"rendered":"Point of View: Karen MacMurray"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b\"]{display:block;padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-md, 2rem);text-align:center;font-size:var(--global-kb-font-size-sm, 0.9rem);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<span class=\"kt-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b wu-subheading wp-block-kadence-advancedheading has-kb-palette-14-color has-text-color\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3537_4ee8a7-3b\">Karen MacMurra | College of Arts &#038; Sciences from 1986 to 2020<\/span>\n\n\n<style>.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3537_8896ae-51 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p>As&nbsp;the child of a career officer in the U.S. Navy, Karen MacMurray grew up in a lot of places. After graduating from Indiana University, she taught art in Smithville, Indiana\u2019s public schools, then art and English in Pusan, South Korea, for the Department of Defense. \u201cI spent my first 26 years all over,\u201d she says, \u201cand the rest in one place: Dover, Delaware.\u201d She began teaching drawing, painting, watercolors, and design at Wilmington College during her time at Dover High School, where she taught art from 1970 to 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Freedom, finally.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cI always said that teaching at Wilmington University was my reward for teach-ing public school all those years. I have found it to be a very faculty-friendly environment. Anything I wanted, I could have, and I didn\u2019t ask for very much. I tried to keep the required supplies list affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>An artist with an MBA?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/em>\u201cI earned my MBA at Wilmington College in 1986, while I was teaching high school. They were looking for an arts specialist, and I started teaching right away. I went for a business degree because the art business was popular at the time. The business world seems to be wary of artist types. There was a lack of education on their part, not the artists\u2019 part. Maybe it\u2019s getting better?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Learning by doing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide wu-blockquote-row is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote wu-blockquote-simple is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI really enjoy watching students learn, and seeing what they produce individually with a color scheme, the illusion of depth, or visual parameters, for instance. I give them as much input as possible, but nothing so specific that they can\u2019t interpret it as their own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<cite>\u2014 Karen MacMurray<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Teaching by learning.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cBeing a teacher has guided the direction of my art pursuits outside of class. I\u2019d study and discover when I needed to know more, so I could pass that knowledge on to my students. As styles of art change, there is more to pass on to your students, and more for them to try out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Never too late.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cIn one class, a student who was having trouble with a project raised her hand. \u2018How come all these older people are doing so well?\u2019 she asked. I told her, just because you\u2019re out of school doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re not learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Just in time.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cI retired from WilmU after teaching my first-ever online class, which ended in February 2020. It didn\u2019t have the same energy, and I didn\u2019t have the same connection with my students. I\u2019ve enjoyed working with college students. But I really like my garden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2014 David Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karen MacMurra | College of Arts &#038; Sciences from 1986 to 2020 As&nbsp;the child of a career officer in the U.S. Navy, Karen MacMurray grew&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[615,626],"class_list":["post-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-faculty-feature","tag-magazine-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":615,"label":"Faculty Feature"},{"value":626,"label":"Magazine Fall 2021"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Point-of-View-Karen-MacMurra-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":615,"name":"Faculty Feature","slug":"faculty-feature","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1172,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":626,"name":"Magazine Fall 2021","slug":"magazine-fall-2021","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1183,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17507,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions\/17507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}