We're continuing our series that highlights our awesome faculty members. Below is an interview with Lynda Seasly.
Q: How long have you been teaching at Trinity?
A: 25 years. I was 7 months pregnant with our second child, Charlotte, when I started. She graduated from Trinity in 2008!
Q: What's one of your favorite "Trinity stories"?
A: Wow, there are so many! In Art History, I love to see the students sculpt bananas and shaving cream- a quick, fun way for the students to understand additive and subtractive materials in sculpture. I love seeing awe on students' faces when moved by artwork! In Math, I love to see students understand something they thought was impossible, such as constructing a regular dodecagon for the 7th grade Geometric Construction Project! These type of "lightbulb" moments happen daily and it's a privilege to witness them! Also, at the end of one semester, a group of Art History students called me out to the Art Annex and presented me with a painting that they had jointly made (see photo). It’s one of my treasures! As juniors, they had given me a shirt that said, “Go to the Met”. So much fun!
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: We are reading East of Eden by Steinbeck as a faculty and it has been incredibly captivating; I couldn't put it down! I read almost exclusively non-fiction, especially books about art, history, biographies or math. I usually "give up" non-fiction for Lent and take on fiction (especially to read Pride and Prejudice). My nightstand currently has books on Giotto, Matisse's cut-outs, Renoir (Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir), Etruscan art, math symbols (Enlightening Symbols, by Joseph Mazur), biking, the catacombs and more.
Q: What's your favorite food?
A: Italian pastas or Indian curries. I do love chocolate (!), mint chocolate or Peanut M&Ms!
Q: What are you listening to?
A: I listen to NPR whenever possible, though that's more often in the summer. In terms of music, I like music with a beat so that I can bike to it.
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I love to bike, travel, visit museums and learn/speak Italian.
Q: What do you do to continue learning?
A: I travel, read, study, listen to my students and teach at Trinity. I've participated in three National Gallery of Art summer Teacher institutes on American and Dutch Art, and weeklong NEH seminars on skyscrapers and Prairie School architecture. As a faculty, we study different topics every year. Over the years, I've learned about Quantum Mechanics, done Calculus, read Plato's Republic, Dostoevsky's Idiot, Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention, co-led a study of Contemporary Art, sung with my colleagues, among many other topics! My students teach me so much on a daily basis. This is the wonderful life of learning for a Trinity teacher!
