Sally Trussell: The Teacher Becomes the Student

New Anderson Artists Guild member Sally Trussell, who grew up in South Bend, Indiana, has been a teacher most of her life.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from Indiana University, a master’s degree in drawing from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a doctorate in education from Boston University, she taught middle school art for six years in Massachusetts.

But then she spent the next 30 years teaching computer science at the University of Southern Maine, mostly doing training on personal computers for companies. She enjoyed the challenge of working with adults.

She retired in 2015 and still spends summers in Portland, Maine. But she and her husband live in Westminster, South Carolina, during the winter near his daughter.

Since leaving the workforce, Trussell has been learning to paint with oils, taking twice-weekly Zoom classes for the past eight years with a teacher in Maine. Trusell is drawn to still lifes and landscapes, working mostly from photos she has taken. She also does portraits of people and animals and especially likes to capture houses. She gives much of her work away.

She learned about the Anderson Artists Guild from friend and fellow member Sue Cheney.