Mira Costa High School Art Instructor Retires From Teaching, But Not Her Mission

By Erika Maldonado

In a ceramics classroom at Mira Costa High School, rock-and-roll music fills the room. The low hum of the pottery wheel adds to the guitar riffs and rhythmic bass lines. Smiles widen on the faces of students as their creative juices flow.

This is the scene Peggy Zask says she will miss most about teaching. The Palos Verdes Estates resident retired last month after 26 years of teaching throughout the South Bay and in Idaho.

“I won’t want to remember the bad classes I’ve had when bowls were flying across the room,” said Zask. “But I’ll miss seeing my students discovering something for the first time and just loving it. It raises a person’s self esteem to get into something new and improve.”

Zask's students aren't the only one who've improved with time, she told Patch, noting that throughout her two-decade teaching career, she’s evolved professionally and personally. Her earlier lessons introduced students to the basics of constructing a clay pot. Now she uses an iPad application that makes stop motion videos using clay figures.

But teaching didn't strike an absolutely harmonious chord with Zask, she said. It took her nearly 10 years to be fully comfortable in the classroom. Until she was, every morning on her drive to school, her stomach would tighten up and the nervous tension would set in.

“I always felt a little awkward as a teacher,” she said. “It’s always hard to talk to big groups of people, but I’ve gotten used to it. Now it just feels like I’m going home when I’m in the classroom.”

Zask, an artist herself as you can well imagine, continues to evolve. The talented artist has immersed herself in the contemporary art world, curating exhibitions in her art gallery on the Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates. Curating has helped her develop her own skills, she said. 

Now that she has more time to dedicate to her work, Zask is focused on deconstructing her paintings and making them less objective.

“It’s the first time I haven’t struggled to make my art look like something else. I’m making it look like what I want it to look like, and I’m loving it,” she said.

Zask's latest exhibition, which features work from an open call for artists, at PS Zask Gallery opens July 13. More than 90 artists were selected to celebrate a diverse art community across different mediums and genres.

Zask is also putting together a non-profit organization known as South Bay Contemporary. She intends for the organization to  bring contemporary art to the South Bay community while providing a relevant and active resource for community arts education.