In addition to his on-campus teaching, DeCesare regularly mentors teens at his studio in Collinsville, helping them develop scholarship-level art portfolios. “I am relevant in the classroom when I am living out the disciplines I teach,” affirms DeCesare, who is primarily an oil painter, utilizing traditional studio methods and various mediums such as charcoal, pastel and watercolor. “It is important for the artist educator to demonstrate the vulnerability, struggle, process and perseverance necessary to succeed.” DeCesare’s eclectic experience as a teacher has included the following roles: figure drawing instructor at the New Britain Museum of American Art, adjunct instructor of painting at the Hartford Art School, and portrait painting instructor at the West Hartford Art League. Plus, he has given myriad lectures and demonstrations, speaking to students and faculty at various Connecticut colleges on the topic of “Creativity in the Digital Age” — including the University of New Haven, Middlesex Community College and Tunxis Community College. On a shelf in DeCesare’s art studio is a notebook. Not just any notebook, but a book of dreams ... dreams that have largely become reality. This noteworthy notebook is filled with drawings, designs and written plans that date back to the early 2000s — plans for an art studio that would support THE DECESARE FAMILY — Parents Kelly and Jim with (from left) Annie Rose, Luca and Madeline
CANTON TODAY • OCTOBER 2018
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