MACON, Ga. — An art teacher at L. H. Williams Elementary School uses art to heal and redirect kids in the classroom.
Ms. Char Lockett is a local artist who takes her love of art and love of kids into the school system and into other youth programs.
Lockett has been drawing and designing clothes since she was eight years old. Right out of college, she started working with the nonprofit 'Community Artists Collective' and traveling throughout Houston, Texas.
When she returned home, however, she knew she wanted to teach art to kids.
"It's therapeutic for me and the kids," Lockett said. "That's my purpose. I love working with kids, and I love doing art and making them happy through art."
Lockett also worked directly with troubled youth in the juvenile system. She talked about how that experience led her to teaching kids classroom skills they can apply to their everyday lives.
"I'm constantly talking to the kids about being serious about art," Lockett said. "Art helps you to be a well-rounded person. It enhances your math, your science, your language. Don't take art as a joke because everything on this earth was developed by some artist."
Lockett mentioned she teaches art to help kids develop themselves, love themselves and redirect negative behavior. Lockett said she sees herself in all of her students, and some students say they see her as an inspiration.
"My job doesn't feel like a job because I love it," Lockett said. "I'm passionate about it, and I'm helping people also."
"I feel like it's an escape from reality whenever I do art in here," Jayden Hardigree, 5th grader at L. H. Williams Elementary, said.
"She's an inspiration," Bella Armstrong, a 4th grader at L. H. Williams Elementary, said.
"I really love my art teacher," Kaylee Hardigree, 3rd grader at L. H. Williams Elementary, said.
Ms. Char Lockett has been at L.H. Williams as an Artist In Residence for the past three years.
She obtained her Associate Degree in Fashion Illustration from the Art Institute of Atlanta and has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the University of Houston-Downton.
Lockett also has her art studio located in West Macon.