“York Tech Student Wants to Teach Art One Day”

    By Martha Macdonald, Ph.D.

When he was two years old, Stephen Fairchild moved with his family to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and he longs to return there to teach art to high school students.

Stephen did his first drawing at 4.  “It was a turtle, and my grandmother who was an artist kept the picture.”  Other pictures followed.  He worked in oils, pastels, water color, and he simply sketched.  “My favorite medium is pencil drawings, and I especially enjoy doing flowers, still life, and lighthouses.”  In the eleventh grade, he won first place on the local, state, and national level for an art piece called “Liberty.”

His eyes excited, Stephen explains this pastel.  “On the crown of the eagle, I put ‘In God We Trust.”   He also did another painting entitled “Dark Angel” which he especially enjoyed.  Besides drawing and painting, he loves music.  “The coronet is one of the most beautiful instruments.”

 But everything changed with Hurricane Katrina.  “I lost all of my paintings,” and then my father became ill.”  That’s why Stephen Fairchild moved to South Carolina.  “I wanted to take care of him.”  After Stephen moved, he got his GED, then enrolled at York Tech.  “I love this place.  All of the teachers are great, especially Ms. Thompson.”

 He is working to meet his goals.  “I want to finish my Associate in Arts here and move back to Mississippi.  I want to teach art to students in high school back home.” And wherever you see Stephen---on campus, in class, or in the cafeteria, you’ll see him drawing.

“Visions come to me, and I just have to express them on paper or canvas.”