Phillips’ Mill Community Association Art Talk presents teachers

The Phillips’ Mill Community Association presents “Meet the Teachers” with John Rodgers and Amanda Penecale, from 5 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, as part of its ArtTalk series of conversations with artists from around the region.

Teachers are important members of the community but their jobs have become even more essential during 2020. Meet two local art teachers, John Rodgers and Amanda Penecale, who also happen to be recipients of awards at the 91st annual Juried Art Exhibition.

Topics of discussion will include how they decided to go into teaching and how they pursue their art career outside the classroom. The discussion will be lead by Laura Womack, a former journalist in public radio who currently chairs the Phillips’ Mill Art Show.

Registration is required at zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1opgczVTQoiJwg7LBfTFdw by 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, to receive your link to the discussion.

Rodgers’ formal training has been in sculpture, with graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Tyler School of Art. He’s been sharing his knowledge with students since 1983. At the same time he has also pursued his career as a sculptor. His work, “Covid-19 Put Us in a Tailspin,” won the 2020 Phillips’ Mill Community Association Sculpture Award in Memory of William “Billy” Beaumont.

Trained at Rhode Island School of Design in photography and illustration, Penecale now shares her passion for art with her students. She has turned to painting more seriously in the last few years and during the pandemic has often painted en plein air near her family’s Ottsville home. Her painting, “Cliffs and Phlox,” won the Award for First Time Exhibitor in Memory of Russel P. Gilsdorf given by Pat and Bruce Hamilton at the 91st annual Juried Art Exhibition.

Womack hosted her own syndicated show in Virginia before joining WAMU in Washington, D.C., where she also contributed to NPR. She became involved in the arts while living in Singapore, where she worked as a docent and developed an interest in textiles. Today, Womack is a weaver and chair of the Phillips’ Mill Art Show committee.

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