Article by Mike Guyer
Jeffery Deane Hall has been one of my strongest mentors throughout my career as an artist and educator.  I was lucky enough to begin my career at the Center for the Arts, and both teachers with whom I worked (Mary Scurlock and Jeffery Deane Hall) were instrumental in shaping my vision.  As the years pass, I often look back on those early days of my career working with them, and I cannot separate any success my students or I have had since them from what have and continue to learn from them.

Recently, Jeff's work was featured in New American Paintings magazine, and I wanted to write this brief story as a congratulations to his continued success as both and artist and educator.  I still work closely with Jeff, as we are ever competitive with our respective programs.  He is the Fine Arts Chair at Maggie Walker Governor's School, and we are in close communication about new ideas in both our artwork and our teaching. In my first year, Jeff taught me a lot about raising the bar of expectations in my classroom, and demonstrated the important role that technology has in contemporary education and art-making.  Congratulations Jeff, on this new level of achievement with your artwork, and to the future of your work as an artist, educator, and mentor to the many people with whom you work.