This year, Karmin Williams joins the Lick-Wilmerding community after teaching at the Waldorf School for 16 years. She teaches part time, instructing the video portion of the Contemporary Media & Art (CMA) class. Williams said, “I love that LWHS has the arts and technical arts all integrated into academics, and that everyone’s required to take these classes. I think that creates really well rounded human beings.”
At the Waldorf school, academics are taught in a similar integrated fashion. “In the Waldorf grade school, you’re actually teaching drawing as an academic subject. Then from there reading is taught based on the story in the drawing. So it’s actually always looking at academics through the lens of art,” said Williams. Over the course of the past eight years, Williams has shared hundreds of stories. “The stories are never read, but instead shared from the heart with precise language to build skills,” said Williams. Williams hopes to help CMA students share their own stories through video. CMA allows Williams to return to her roots in Contemporary Art.
Williams was born and raised in Michigan before attending boarding school in Kodaikanal, India. She then attended NYU majoring in both studio art and anthropology before receiving her teaching certificate.
When she is not making art, Williams is busy with her two young kids, Lila and Otis. Her mornings usually start at 6:30 AM, and are busy with getting herself and her kids ready for school before heading to work. Although it is hectic, Williams loves parenting. She said parenting is a “very artistic process, to think about how you want to shape someone’s understanding and worldview and life.”
In fact, Williams leads parenting classes. “I help them frame parenting, help them understand how profound it is and how meaningful and also kind of commiserate on how challenging it can be,” she said
In her free time, Williams can be found in nature gardening, woodworking, swimming in cold water, hiking and surfing. Her perfect day would be, unsurprisingly, in nature. She would drive to one of her favorite surf spots in Santa Cruz with her husband. She said, “One of my favorite things to do in the world is just sit on my board… out before the water breaks. So none of the waves would actually catch you. And then just look out.”
If you see her around make sure to ask her about one of her numerous passions!
