A central component of my creative arts doctoral study that explores the dynamic intersection between education and Visual Art through an inclusive, interdisciplinary lens.

This series presents ten visual portraits of teachers and teacher aides; each one a rural Queensland educator whose professional and personal narratives emerge through a collaborative process of sitting, storytelling, and artistic interpretation.

These portraits do more than represent, but make visible the lived experiences, identities, and agencies of both the participant (educator) and the artist (researcher/educator).

Grounded in my methodological framework of ARRT (Artistic Research Responses to Teaching), this work departs from traditional stand-alone ethnographic or autoethnographic approaches.

ARRT is distinguished by its demand for an artistic response at its core that is both expressive and actionable. It uses artistic practice not only as a mode of inquiry, but as a vehicle for agency-building and empowerment within liminal educational/artistic spaces.

Through this portraiture modality, my research affirms the value of artistic practice in the visual art curriculum and offers a nuanced methodology for engaging with the often-overlooked narratives of rural educators. This is not simply about art as representation; this is about art as activation.