What is your name and department? I’m Alethea Busch and I’m in the Fine Arts Department.

What’s your favorite food? I love sushi and anything seafood. I would recommend going to Jinsei Motto for their omakase experience. It’s a 15 course meal of one bite sashimi or nigiri.

What is your astrological sign? I am a Sagicorn. The first day of Capricorn season and the winter solstice.

What’s the best/favorite vacation you went on? I traveled to Iceland last spring break with my roommate and we saw the northern lights, humpback whales, walked black sand beaches, and rode on Icelandic horses.

What is your biggest pet peeve? When wifi doesn’t work and we’re in the year 2023, like… c’mon.

What is the most meaningful thing you own? My childhood beanie baby, Sizzle, who has been to all 50 states with me when I was younger road tripping with my family. Now I have a tattoo of him to give me good luck while traveling.

Out of all the classes you teach, which one is your favorite and why? My favorite class to teach is Advanced Studio Art because the students have a lot of freedom to help design what projects we do and I end up learning a lot in that class as well. We are always experimenting and pushing the limits of our creativity!

What is one of your favorite art projects you had your students do? Recently, we had a portrait drawing challenge where students had to use an entire pen until it was dry. This forced them to add a lot of detail in their designs.

Were you always an artistic person as a kid? Yes. I’ve been an artist since birth.

What is one of your favorite art pieces of yours? I recently painted this violin for a fundraiser and it was very fun to make!

Why do you think art is an important thing to learn? Art is important because it is really all about problem solving within certain limitations. It requires you to think through different processes and understand how people see the world. Visual media is part of every single part of our lives, think advertisements, social media, food packaging, event posters, furniture, book covers, clothing; and artists are the ones that learn how to navigate it.