Jody Paulson | SIU

Art Education

Jody Paulson is an artist and educator who has worked in Art Education for 30 years in variety of settings and capacities. She has taught art in Montana, Utah, Nevada, and now in Carbondale, Illinois. Jody’s areas of focus in the field of Art Education include authentic art assessment, transdisciplinary curriculum development, and community partnership.

Her career path has been unique in that she has had the opportunity to go back and forth between university teaching and K-12 teaching. This has provided her with the ability to apply strategies she has developed in her areas of focus to a variety of situations and age levels and then to examine them within the constructs of university research. Some of this research has culminated in grant-funded curricular cycles which explored connections across multiple disciplines and cultures.  

In her studio practice, Jody has developed a method she calls inked collage. While experimental in nature, it is rooted in the collagraph printmaking process. Most recently Jody has been using quilting techniques within her collages to explore issues of gender and heritage. Her birthplace in the middle of the Sioux Assiniboine Indian reservation in Montana and her lack of Indian ancestry has been recurrent themes within her work. Jody has also begun experimenting with encaustic collage applying many of the same techniques she uses in her inked collages to this medium with very different outcomes. As she states, “I find the translucency of the encaustic collage a nice balance to the dark shadowy patina of my inked collages.”

Jody was born and raised in northeastern Montana. She received a BFA in Art and a Master of Interdisciplinary Studies degree combining the disciplines of Art, Curriculum and Instruction, and Native American Studies from The University of Montana. At her previous appointment at The University of Montana, she was awarded a grant through the Office of Public Instruction to develop curriculum for their Indian Education for All program. Jody continues to exhibit her artwork and has been included in more than 30 shows across the USA and Canada.

Jody serves on the Unit Accreditation Coordinating Council for the Teacher Education Program, and the TEP liaison for her students.

Jody currently teaches AD208 Intro to Art Education, AD308 Philosophies, Trends, and Professional Practices in Art Education, AD318 Building Curriculum in Art, AD328 Artistic Growth of Children, and AD338 Artistic Growth of Adolescents and Adults.