Jerry Slayton

Jerry Slayton grew up in a small coal mining community outside of Birmingham, Alabama. His grandmother introduced him to painting and sewing at an early age, and his parent’s refrigerator was always being filled with new drawings. In college he studied art at both the undergraduate and graduate level and after school was compelled to give back through teaching. He began at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, then moved to Austin to seek out new endeavors. Inspired in part by his sister, who is living with Cerebral Palsy, he began teaching traditional and digital media arts in special education.

Jerry manages senior and new media art programs at Art Spark. These programs combine tech hardware and software with tradition art mediums such as drawing and painting. His goal in education is to provide a project-based experience for students where their artistic creativity is channeled towards a group goal. Through group work students learn critical executive functioning skills as they are introduced to new methods for art expression. Students become designers, solving visual problems as they make.