 "Photo: Mandy Wong")
With his interest in photography and design, Gary Oliveira has enjoyed teaching at Green River Community College (GRCC) for 18 years. He is now teaching photography and art classes. Oliveira completed his bachelor of fine arts at the University of Dayton and received a master's in Photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Prior to teaching at Green River, Oliveira worked at a photo studio as a custom black and white printer. He says, "Green River was one of my first teaching jobs." Oliveira started his part-time teaching at GRCC in 1992 and became a full-time instructor in 2001.
What made Oliveira decide to become a teacher? He thinks a while and decides, "Hmm… I always liked doing art, teaching in a creative environment… Being around students are very energizing for me." Why did he choose to teach at Green River? "I had moved to Seattle from the east coast for the adventure. I love the campus at Green River."
He enjoys being an art teacher and has been inspired by his students in his many years here. He adds, "I like the environment, I like to learn and teach and learning so much amazing things at college with students."
Oliveria feels that his favorite part of teaching at Green River can be summed up in one sentence, "Teaching students, developing artists, and enjoying the friendly environment are very nice in here."
When asked about his favorite piece of art work and his favorite artist, Oliveira passionately says, "Photography is my favorite type of art, Josef Koudelka is my favorite photographer." Since there are too many pieces of art work that he likes, he takes a moment to decide which one he likes to most. This is painful to pick the best favorite one, but he decides, "I think it is the 36 views of Mount Fuji."
Oliveira is a very friendly teacher with a great passion and skill with developing someone who is interested in art and giving help to students. Oliveria's message to students is this, "Try lots of things, different subjects, there are great areas to study while you are here. Studying in college is supposed to be one of the best times in our lives. Try to learn from different people and areas. Those experiences will benefit our future lives."
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