From painting to pottery and canvases to clay, art comes in many forms. To be a teacher of all these forms of expression takes a special character.

Mr. Santiago has been an art teacher at New Ulm High School for two years, although he has been teaching art for a total of five years. He taught at Mankato West before joining the NUHS staff.

He hasn’t personally changed any of the projects while at New Ulm, and he still looks forward to certain units.

“I’m always excited for the printmaking (project),” Mr. Santiago said. “I trained to be a printmaker.”

Printmaking involves taking a “matrix,” such as wood or plastic, and carving a design into it. Then you layer paint or ink over top. Once you do that, you press your matrix onto a piece of paper.

“That entire process, from start to finish, is called printmaking,” Mr. Santiago said.

Grading art is not as straightforward as other classes.

“It’s a very weird kind of way to grade it.” Mr. Santiago said.

The art department uses specific rubrics to look for specific skills, along with creativity, craftsmanship, and how it looks visually.

Mr. Santiago teaches many forms of art, such as digital art, drawing and painting, and art foundations and is hopefully looking forward to teaching more years of art at New Ulm High School.