Mark Poteat
e-mail: mpoteat@wpcc.edu
Hi, I am Mark Poteat, the Art Coordinator and Art instructor here at Western Piedmont. I have been teaching at Western Piedmont for 20 years, first as an adjunct faculty member from 1998 to 2002, and then as full time coordinator and instructor from 2002 to the present.
I never thought that I would ever be a teacher or even in the arts. Like most students who attend Western Piedmont, I, too, am a native of Burke County where I attended Freedom High School. After high school, I attended High Point College, now High Point University, where I played on the golf team and was a business major. After two years not knowing what I really wanted to do, I came back home and enrolled at Western Piedmont. While taking a drawing course with the art instructor Raymond Goodfellow, I found my way. After a year of studying art at WPCC, I transferred to East Carolina University, where I received my BFA in Painting and Drawing. I then attended Graduate School at East Tennessee State University where I received my MFA in Painting. Upon graduating in 1998, I began my teaching career as an adjunct instructor here at WPCC. In 2002, I became the Art Coordinator and Instructor.
Apart from teaching art, I am a practicing artist (painter) and maintain a studio at my house. I have shown my work locally, regionally, and nationally. I see my role as an artist to be intrinsic to my role as an instructor. My key philosophy as an educator is first and foremost to have a passion for the subject being taught and to instill that same passion into my students.
I am the proud dad of two teenagers, a son and a daughter. My interests and hobbies include travel, sports (golf, rugby, and boxing), reading, music and concerts, museums, and the performing arts.