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Macon art teacher moves classes online, creates portraits of front line workers

Micah Goguen's students say painting and drawing during the COVID-19 outbreak is 'therapeutic.'

MACON, Ga. — Micah Goguen usually teaches art classes in studios around Central Georgia, but when the pandemic hit last month, he had to think outside the box to save his business.

He moved his classes online and is teaching through Zoom. Some students say during the coronavirus outbreak, it's a great outlet to cope with stress and anxiety.

"This is something that really gives us something to look forward to while we're all staying at home," says student Robbyn Zimmerman. "It takes your mind off everything else, because you're concentrating on the drawing." 

But outside the virtual art studio, front line workers and first responders are concentrating on something else, fighting the deadly disease, so art student Gail Johnston pitched an idea to Goguen. 

"I said, 'This is my recommendation, what do you think?' We draw nurses, doctors, aides—whomever. At the end of all this, we have an art show honoring all the people who are on the front lines," says Johnston. 

The class got to work. Their first drawing? An ICU nurse from Italy. 

"It was so emotional to sit down and really focus on her face and her eyes, and the indentions in her cheeks from where the mask was, and the scrapes on her nose," says student Laura Morris. 

"The art class provided not only a resting place, but a consciousness of how we could support and lift up these people that were working so hard in the community," says Goguen.

Goguen says they're still working out the details on how they'll display the portraits.

If you'd like to submit a picture of a local front line worker click here to visit Goguen's website. 

If you'd like to sign up for an online art class, click here.

He can also be reached at micah_21_2000@yahoo.com or  (478) 508-6542.  

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