Scott Wolfson is an art teacher and the Department Chair of the Visual Arts Department at The Fieldston School in New York City.\u00a0 I spoke to Mr. Wolfson during his advanced art class at the heavy oak table near the back of the room. The room smelled of oil paint, mineral spirits and linseed oil. The moment we sat down, Mr. Wolfson eagerly told me how he began to love art. He told me how he \u201cwas always drawing from a very young age,\u201d describing the times he would \u201cgo out for dinner with [his] parents, and [he] had [his] little sketchbook.\u201d While most kids put the crayons down when the food arrived, Scott couldn\u2019t stop. By fourth grade, Mr. Wolfson\u2019s constant creativity began to take proper shape. He and a close friend started making comic books together\u2013his friend wrote the dialogue, and Scott illustrated scenes. And thus began his journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defining point in his career began in high school: \u201cI was probably a sophomore or junior when I took my first oil painting class,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I really got hooked.\u201d Scott looked up thoughtfully, recalling his high-school years. He described the class that first drew him in\u2013\u2013 \u201cthe smell of the paint, the feeling of the paint on the brush, the brush on the canvas.\u201d High school is a place where some find hobbies and skills that they will have for the rest of their lives, and Mr. Wolfson stayed true to this concept. He remembered thinking how he \u201cjust wanted to be in the art studio all the time.” As his hours in the art studio stacked up, so did his experience in the field. By the end of high school, Mr. Wolfson had taken almost all the art classes offered to him and found himself yearning for even more time in the studio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scott remembers his favorite teacher, who he felt inspired by, because of his lifestyle, one that simultaneously incorporated art, as well as a steady and reliable source of income. He mentioned how he immediately \u201csaw that as, I guess, without naming it, the thing that I wanted to do.\u201d Scott mentioned how his high school self thought, \u201c\u2018Wow, you could be in the classroom and in the studio.\u2019 I really enjoyed being there, so I wondered, \u2018Why wouldn\u2019t someone else want to be in there too?\u2019\u201d Before he knew it, Scott was enrolled in Wesleyan, where he would go on to spend his 20’s doing similar things to his high school art teacher.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Wesleyan, Mr. Wolfson found the same kind of educational-art balance that previously inspired him in high school. He chose the liberal arts university over a traditional art school after one of his teachers advised him to explore a broad range of schools.. That teacher \u201csteered me away from just pure art school,\u201d he said, \u201cjust cause he was like, \u2018don\u2019t just lock into a singular thing so early.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Wesleyan, he took that advice to heart, studying in multiple subjects while taking art classes at the same time. Although some lose their passions later in life, Scott never did, and continued to love art through his late teens and early 20’s. Through his art classes in college, Scott continued to be inspired by his art teachers, envying their lifestyle, which includes a healthy amount of art and a stable job. \u201cWhen they’re not teaching, they’re like in their studio making work. It seemed like it was everything I wanted to be doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Towards the end of his college experience, Scott was offered a position at Wesleyan, which lined up with his goals as an artist. One of Scott\u2019s professors offered him a position teaching in a summer program at Wesleyan. He remembered his teacher explaining to him, \u201cYou can stay in my apartment, just house sit for me, take care of the apartment, and you’ll be running the print shop, and you’ll be teaching these high school students.\u201d It was exactly what Mr. Wolfson wanted: an opportunity to be in an art studio as much as possible, while doing something productive in teaching students. \u201cThe director of the program interviewed me, and within a week, I had the job for that summer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the following years, Mr. Wolfson continued teaching at this Wesleyan Summer program for the next five summers, while incorporating additional teachings at different art organizations. He did this alongside pursuing his own art career, spending as much time in the studio as he could.\u201dIt was kind of immediate. It just, like, sort of struck something in me that was like, \u2018Yes, this is what I want to be doing.”\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scott eventually went to graduate school, earning his Master of Fine Arts (MFA), by 27. Soon after, he began applying for additional teaching positions at colleges and high schools. Eventually, he came across Fieldston, where he applied to and has now been a community member for fifteen years and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI started part-time,\u201d he said, \u201cand now I\u2019m the chair of the art department.\u201d What started as a temporary position is now an important, lasting role that perfectly blends his two passions: making and teaching art. Wolfson follows photography teacher Mark Stracke, who was Visual Arts chair for forty years, and for many Fieldston teachers, Wolfson is the perfect fit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being a part of Fieldston has become a defining part of Mr. Wolfson\u2019s creative and professional life. \u201cI enjoy walking into the studio,\u201d he said. \u201cI enjoy talking about art all day.\u201d Surrounded by students and colleagues who share his enthusiasm, he finds constant inspiration in the classroom. Watching his students discover their voices reminds him of his own journey\u2014the same curiosity that kept him drawing as a kid and painting as a teenager still fuels his teaching today. \u201cI love seeing students grow over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to watch their work change and evolve.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As our conversation ended, it was clear that art for Mr. Wolfson is more than a profession\u2014 it\u2019s his lifelong goal, involving creativity and community. He\u2019s spent years balancing the studio and the classroom, but still approaches both with the same sense of wonder and passion he felt as a teenager with his first paintbrush. He reminds his students to pursue art only if they truly feel called to it. \u201cYou should only do it if you feel like you have to,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t imagine doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0In a world where creativity is often undervalued, Mr. Wolfson\u2019s career stands as proof that an art career is not a one-way street but a path splitting out into multiple places. His story shows that being an artist is not only about what you create, but about how you share that creativity with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scott Wolfson is an art teacher and the Department Chair of the Visual Arts Department at The Fieldston School in New York City.\u00a0 I spoke to Mr. Wolfson during his advanced art class at the heavy oak table near the back of the room. The room smelled of oil paint, mineral spirits and linseed oil. The moment we sat down, Mr. Wolfson eagerly told me how he began to love art. He told me how<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":12489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,347,426,644,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[695],"class_list":["post-12486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-faculty","category-features","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-10.16.38-AM-e1763479030629.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12757,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions\/12757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12486"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}