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When I think of Mr. Hodge and his art classes, I think of an incredible diversity of art and materials, textures, forms, lines, and colors. I think of celebrating creations large and small, "important" and "unimportant." Mr. Hodge helped me develop an interest and appreciation for visual art that I've continued throughout my life. I also learned about creative freedom joined with responsibility and respect. In Mr. Hodge's classes, we learned about and were free to explore a multitude of methods and materials for making visual art. We were also expected to use our time and materials responsibly and be sincere in our efforts. When working with clay, you needed to be focused on learning about the clay and how to work with it (not just goofing-off with it.) When working with pen and ink, you needed to focus and carefully observe the subject, and learn how to work with lines. Mr. Hodge helped me learn about "serious fun" - having fun while being responsible and engaged in something serious; this is also something I've continued throughout my life.