Even with 35 years of teaching art under his belt, Joe Emery has yet to slow down with his own artwork, and he is succeeding.

Some of Emery’s artwork is on display with the Georgia Art Educators Show as part of the Fall Exhibitions at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville.

Emery has been a member of the Georgia Art Educators Association since 1987.

“Every year at the Georgia Art Educators Association fall conference, they usually have the annual exhibit that educators can enter and they give awards and such,” Emery said. “It gives the teachers a chance to show the public that besides being teachers, they are also artists. It’s a nice way for the teachers to be able to exhibit their work in the state.”

This year, Gainesville was selected as the host city for the conference. Quinlan jumped at the chance to work with such great artists, including Emery.

“I believe that sometimes people need to be reminded that the educators working in schools, colleges and universities are also exceptional fine artists, and this is an opportunity to really let them shine,” Quinlan Executive Director Amanda McClure said.

Teaching and doing has always been part of the equation for Emery.

“(I’ve) been doing art most of his life,” said Emery, who is in his third year of retirement from his career as Gainesville School High School’s head art department teacher.

Emery has a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a master’s degree in sculpture from Murray State University in Kentucky. Then he returned to college to take classes allowing him to teach art. It has been his profession ever since.

“I’ve taught middle school, high school and college,” Emery said. “Now that I’ve retired, I do private lessons. And besides teaching private lessons, I have my studio.”

In his studio is where he crafts his pieces, which are usually a series of works.

“I was doing a series of sculptures on reincarnation,” he said. “About six or eight months ago, I started doing pieces on dementia, so I’m doing both of those series right now.”

And once he starts a series, he never really stops.

“I might add pieces to them,” Emery said.

But his sculptures at the Quinlan is different. It is not a series and does not have a theme.

“Every educator (who) wanted to submit a piece could send it in and the gallery director of Brenau (University) selected the pieces that she thought were at a professional level,” Emery said.

McClure said she was pleased with those selections. In fact, the Georgia Art Educators Show is one of her favorites at the gallery in Gainesville.

“This show is incredibly varied,” McClure said. “Joe Emery’s bronze work and Sarah Claussen’s encaustic works are standouts and both of these educators are from right here in Gainesville. The show features work from artists across the state.”

Emery added the different artists supplied a nice mixture of pieces of all different sizes.

“When you go to the exhibit, it’s really nice because you’re not going to see just one theme up there,” he said. “It’s a nice exhibit this year.”