Digital media arts teacher takes long 'journey' to classroom

Marcus Journey had plans to become a nurse when he first began as a student at Brigham Young University at Idaho, but one class tripped him up and sent him on a completely different path.

“I got a C in my anatomy and physiology class,” said Journey, who began as an instructor of visual arts at LSMSA in August. “To get into the nursing program, you can’t have a C.”

During that same semester, Journey was enrolled in a photography class and believes that was part of the reason why he didn’t perform as well in the anatomy and physiology class.

“I was spending so much time doing photography,” he said. “I excelled at the assignments. My teacher would pick four of the best photos from that week, and I found that every week I was getting at least one photo picked.

“I thought that was really cool.”

He then applied to the BFA program, which was equally as competitive as the nursing program.

Following graduation, Journey and his wife moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he worked as a photo editor for Tom Mangelsen, one of the foremost authorities on wildlife photography.

“That was an awesome job, but Jackson Hole, Wyoming is an affluent area,” said Journey. “My wife wanted to get her graduate degree in occupational therapy. She had wanted to do that for a long time, so she applied to a lot of schools in the south.”

When she applied to LSU, she didn’t realize the health school was actually in Shreveport.

“She got into a few schools, but she liked her interview at Shreveport the best,” he said. “We left Jackson Hole, which is so beautiful. We left in April and it was snowing. We got to Louisiana and it was 95.

“It was a shock. The first year, I was very uncomfortable living here.”

After the move, Journey was unsure of his next steps.

“When I got here, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to make art,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily know if I wanted to teach, but I knew I wanted to continue with photography. I liked the idea of making fine art.”

Journey chose to apply to the closest graduate school program, which was at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.

“I spent the next three years going to school there, and I graduated in May,” he said.

He met Chris King, lecturer of visual arts at LSMSA, when he applied to be in a juried show presented by King.

“Chris showed three of my pieces,” said Journey. “I came, met Chris and he gave me a tour. At that point, I never thought I would teach here but I thought this was a cool program.”

When the opportunity presented itself to join the faculty, he agreed and now teaches intro to visual arts and digital media.

“I would say that in the digital media class I am at home and more relaxed,” said Journey. “It is more of a free flowing class. I encourage students to write a project proposal about something that is important to them.

“I find that I learn about what the students care about and what is important to them. A lot of them make work about things they are concerned about. It is nice to see they are doing that. A lot of it is related to their family and how they were raised and how they were brought up.”

Since Journey works only two nights a week at LSMSA, he has another job as a creative assistant for a fine arts photographer in Shreveport.

“Her name is Ann George,” said Journey. “She is established and has her work shown in galleries all over the country. I have a whole other life that I do. It is a really nice balance for me because I have a lot of hands-on crafts Wednesday through Friday and Monday and Tuesday I teach.

“I really like that I am doing both. Someday it may be complicated, but right now it seems to work.”