Joy Lai, Art Teacher
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I was born in Taipei, Taiwan. In 1988 my family flew to New York for a summer vacation and just never went home. You could say that the family creed is to be spontaneous, to be flexible, and to trust your intuition. My formative years were spent in a small town in the Hudson Valley, NY where my immigrant status and lack of access to television gave me a creative and critical lens to view the world. I spent my summers reading, drawing, and writing precocious letters on a typewriter. On the bucolic campus of Bard College I learned all about the ways of cultural hegemony and how to worship the avant-garde (pretty much mandatory). I then spent several years living in Harlem and teaching special education students at a middle school in the Bronx as a N.Y.C. Teaching Fellow. I attended evening classes and earned a M.S. in Elementary Education from Mercy College. After a stint as a volunteer farm worker in Italy (another dream fulfilled) I returned to the States to pursue a B.S. in Art Education from S.U.N.Y. New Paltz. I was able to dedicate myself to the process of creation, to the joy of making art. I took courses in various media and loved it all. I cried tears of joy when I finished my first piece of furniture in a woodworking class. Out of curiosity I interned at Art21 (a PBS series on contemporary art) and worked with teachers from all over the country on developing ways to integrate contemporary art into the KL-12 curriculum.
Two years ago I bicycled from Portland to Eugene with my father on a permaculture tour and made the decision to move to this beautiful part of the country. A chain of serendipitous events led me to this dream (see a pattern here?) job at Trillium (it involves a taco truck, cob, and a friendly neighbor) and now I cannot wait to finally have the opportunity to share my experiences, passion, and insatiable curiosity with the students at Trillium. When I’m not teaching I’m probably working in my sketchbook, in the stacks at the library, in the front row at some live show with ear protection, marveling over mosses and slugs on some trail, or having a heated conversation over tea.
