Suzanne Dionne, Outstanding Art Educator 2013 from CT Art Ed. Assoc. CAEA
I was born and raised in Waterbury CT. I graduated from Tinker School and Notre Dame Academy. I graduated from Post College with an A.S. in Therapeutic Recreation, a B.S. and M.S. degree from Southern Connecticut State University in Art Education, a Sixth Year degree in Educational Leadership from SCSU and completed fifteen additional credits in Education. I began teaching in Seymour in 1989. I taught art to grades K-6 for four years. When I began teaching in Waterbury, I taught classroom grade four ... read more at Bucks Hill for one year and at Bunker Hill for three years. I returned to teaching art in 1998 for one year at Bucks Hill and Kingsbury and the following year at Regan and Hopeville. In 2000, I began teaching at Rotella Magnet School. I teach pre-kindergarten through grade two, but have also taught grades three through five. I live with my husband and two children. I also have an older daughter who lives in NY. As a child, I loved drawing, photography, and crafts. My parents encouraged me all of the time. They were my biggest fans. In my early twenties, I took private painting lessons from a Waterbury artist, Jeannine Morin. I began to exhibit and sell oil paintings. Through college, I also became interested in ceramics. At the present, a very busy lifestyle limits my free time, but I still do a lot of photography. One of my most favorite artists is Georgia O'Keefe..."So I said to myself, I'll paint what I see-what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking the time to look at it-I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."
