Visiting Artist Shares Lifetime of Cartooning & Art with Second-Graders

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Visiting artist Jim Hargis was a young man in the Navy when he began cartooning and launched his decades-long career as a commercial artist. He visited Lower School art teacher Marilyn Mullinax's second-graders on January 21 to share his love of art and offer his advice on the students' original comic strips.





"Art is fun," he declared. There was no argument from these enthusiastic comic-strip artists.





Hargis shared with the students dozens of his illustrations for textbooks, brochures, corporations, schools, and universities. Since many of his illustrations employed an airbrush technique, he demonstrated for the children, who were fascinated by the noisy air compressor, a machine that could turn paint and air into art.





The students are creating "stories without words" in their comics. "In my stories," said Hargis, "the artist is always the hero."


Artwork by Melanie Yerkes


The comics assignment dovetails with the second-grade unit on publications, "Read All About It."





The semi-retired artist, who is now proprietor of Hargis Art Services, Studios & Gallery on Haywood Road, spent time with each individual student, answering their questions, listening to their comments, and giving them artistic advice about their drawings.





"You never know," said Mrs. Mullinax, "which experience will ignite a child's imagination and launch them on their future path. That's why I try to bring as many visitors as I can into the classroom to share their knowledge."





Some of these second-graders could one day become graphic artists. Most, of course, will not. But they will all have learned that, like Mr. Hargis, they can share their own creative gifts with the world.


Artwork by Ben Wilcox