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| Photo courtesy Hala Wittwer |
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| Hala Wittwer stands near her illustration, top right, at the Museum of American Illustration in New York City. |
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Students who venture to the top floor of the Jacob Spori Building will find student art galleries and a new award-winning art teacher, Hala Wittwer.
Wittwer participated in an annual art show called Spectrum, which included “fantasy, science fiction, horror and otherwise uncategorizable artwork,” according to www.spectrumfantasticart.com.
Wittwer showed her work, “Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons,” in Spectrum’s exhibition of the best selections of the past 11 years that showed in the Museum of American Illustration in New York City Sept. 7 through Oct. 1.
Wittwer hasn’t always felt she had talent in visual art though. Starting out at Ricks College in 1991, Wittwer thought she wanted to be a music major until someone suggested she take a class from Leon Parson.
“I loved the art class and that made the difference,” she said.
Parson noticed something different about Wittwer when she came into his art classes.
“She was the ideal student,” Parson said. “She didn’t come believing she was better than anyone else because of high school art.”
Wittwer grew up studying music, taking piano for at least 10 years, and did art for fun. She made quite the impression on Parson when she took his class.
“Above all she was willing to work and pay the price until she got it right,” Parson said.
Tendonitis plagued Wittwer for five years during her illustration career and finally forced her to quit painting altogether about a year ago. She has since been able to paint about an hour a day and is learning to paint and draw left-handed.
“Tendonitis is usually seen after excessive repetitive movement with which the tendon gradually becomes tighter until the fibers start to tear,” according to www.tendonitis.net. Wittwer said she “painted her arm to death.”
Since Wittwer could no longer paint for as long, and had kept in contact with Parson, she applied for a teaching position in the art department and received it.“Hala is a natural teacher,” Parson said.
Parson gained this opinion after he watched Wittwer give an art seminar at BYU-Idaho.
He said she didn’t just talk about her life as an artist, but explained the 12 most important points an illustrator should know and used examples to explain what she said.
“She filled a niche in children’s book illustration,” Parson said. “She helps balance and complete what we were already offering.”
Her last big project was doing the illustrations for a children’s book titled Meow printed by HarperCollins, which she finished last year.
With a large project like that finished, and with her award this year, Wittwer is thinking at this crossroad in her life, “If I’m at this point, what am I going to do with my art that will better the world?”
“I have some things I want to say to the world,” Wittwer said.
