What’s Your Mark? Tim McFarlane Sparks Student Creativity

Hands-on workshops, gallery talks, and lunch conversations with the Class of 1957 Artist in Residence immerse students in the process, exploration, and expression of art.

Because of the enduring commitment and legacy of the Springside Class of 1957, students experienced a rare and transformative opportunity: working directly with Tim McFarlane, Class of 1957 Artist in Residence. Through immersive workshops, gallery talks, and informal conversations, students were inspired, challenged, and energized, experiencing firsthand how creativity, collaboration, and artistic risk bring art to life. Not through slideshows or textbooks, but in classrooms, studios, and conversations, they gained new skills, fresh perspectives, and a deeper understanding of their own creative voice.

During his residency, McFarlane connected his visit to his work in the Spring BCG Exhibition, Echoes of Our Future: 250 Years of Black Artistic Legacy, an exhibition created to mark the Semiquincentennial by encouraging students to reflect on their own mark and the legacy they hope to leave for the next 250 years.

“Tim McFarlane brought the question ‘What is your mark?’ vividly to life, inviting students to approach their work with curiosity and courage, as he shared his personal motto: ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’” said Megan Monaghan, director of Arts at SCH.

A graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, McFarlane has exhibited extensively across the United States, including major art fairs in New York, Miami, and Dallas. His works are held in public and private collections, including The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Woodmere Art Museum, and the Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia. Known for his multi-layered abstract paintings, site-specific installations, murals, and experimental approach to color and form, he shared not only his artistic process but also his perspective on observation, rhythm, and the traces we leave behind, insights that shaped every student interaction.

Workshops with Middle School Students
During two immersive sessions, students worked side by side with McFarlane, exploring color, texture, and process. Each mark they made responded to the one before it, as if the canvas were already in conversation with itself.

Each student was invited to create a single, personal mark. Some were bold and sweeping; others were precise and deliberate. Every gesture reflected their own ideas, perspective, and energy, contributing to the evolving composition. One by one, marks appeared, each building on the last to form a dynamic, layered whole.

What began as individual marks quickly evolved into a collective composition. The canvas came alive with overlapping lines, contrasting rhythms, and unexpected intersections. McFarlane moved among the students not to direct but to respond, layer, and connect. Lines became shapes, shapes became layers, and the work expanded with each student’s engagement. By the end of the residency, the two paintings held all of these marks in conversation, a dynamic record of collaboration and shared creativity.

During a workshop, members of the Middle School Arts Council engaged McFarlane in a live conversation as he worked. Their questions emerged naturally: How do you know when a piece is finished? What do you do when you make a mistake? Do you plan your work, or discover it as you go? McFarlane answered while painting, his responses unfolding in color as much as in words. Mistakes, he explained, are often just beginnings in disguise. Completion is less about stopping and more about listening.

Gallery Talk with Upper School Students
McFarlane also offered a gallery talk with Upper School Drawing and Painting students, deepening the dialogue. Standing before Tomorrow’s Conversations, students traced the layered forms that seemed to pulse with movement, gaining insight not only into this piece but also into McFarlane’s broader work, which includes murals, mixed-media installations, and abstract paintings exhibited nationally.
By the conclusion of the residency, two collaborative paintings had been created for the school’s Permanent Art Collection. Set to be installed in the Boat Room, they will serve not only as a reflection of artistic excellence but as a lasting reminder of shared expression. Vibrant and complex, the works resist any single voice. Instead, they hold the energy of many hands, many decisions, and many moments of courage.

The permanence of these two paintings, however, extends beyond the walls. It lives in the student who leaned in and made a mark. In the student who watched their gesture transform through someone else’s response. In the growing understanding that creativity is not only about individual expression, but about connection. And long after the paint has dried, the question remains, echoing through the halls and art studios: What is your mark?