John Gibson
I am a 21 year military veteran. I served in the Marine Corps from 1989 to 1994 then a joined the Army and served until I retired in 2010. I served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I traveled all over the world as a military musician and playing for thousands of people in many different countries and in thirty three states here in the United States. Throughout my career I always gravitated to additional duties as an educator. If it was teaching how to perform our tactical duties, help to improve my fellow musicians or presenting information about the military band program to civilians, I was always there ready to teach.
Before I joined the military I had a very active visual art practice that I put down for the most part while I was in. It was in the military where I found my love of photography and poetry writing. As my time in the military was drawing to a close and it was time to decide what my next career was going to be, being a teacher seemed to be a natural transition. Originally, music was going to be my field of study but I missed art making. After some soul searching I decided to explore being a visual artist once again. After receiving my Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Three Dimensional Studies and Photography from Old Dominion University and my Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from the Vermont College of Fine Arts I received my Virginia Teaching Certification for Art Education. I taught middle school for four years at Georgie Tyler Middle School in Windsor, VA. Now, I am a high school art teacher at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, VA.