Our Team

We are Cindy & Greg Wise

Island Art Gal!

Retired from teaching elementary school,

we are not quite finished with our

mission and love of teaching kids!

Our heart's desire is to help parents with

art and nature lessons for their children and

help foster a life long love of learning.

Our educational experience and background
gives us the edge in helping you!
Cindy has 28 years as a full time art teacher and

three years post retirement in a small

Christian School. She has taught art

in a dedicated art room, on a cart,

and virtually during remote learning in 2020.

Greg was a classroom teacher for every grade

K-5 except 2nd grade. He had the privilege of

being a dedicated reading/math teacher

for 10 years and post retirement was a

substitute teacher for Pre-K through 5th grade.

Why Nature Activities?
Cindy and Greg earned their

NC Environmental Education Certification

in 2014. This involved taking some really

cool Nature Workshops, Teaching,

Environmental Site visits and conducting
two separate Community Partnership Projects!
We truly believe kids need to be

CONNECTED to our

amazing, awesome Creation!

Island Art Gal?
Our name, Island Art Gal, comes from Cindy's birth

on the island of Japan - courtesy of the US Air Force and Greg's birth in Cuba - courtesy of the US Navy.
We are continuing our "Island Living"

a small island off a barrier island

in coastal NC.

Learning should be FUN!

Learning should inspire Curiosity!

Learning should be Engaging and incorporate Hands-on experiences!

Let us help you bring creative, engaging, and
inspiring hands-on art & nature learning to your child!

Teach and Release!

Teach our students so we can

release them to be successful adults!

Problem Solvers | Independent | Confident | Decision Makers!

The birth of Island Art Gal

Spring 2020

Island Art Gal's roots go back to the year 2019. Cindy was slated to retire from teaching public school art January 1, 2020. She would leave at Christmas break and not return. Her paperwork was already 2/3 of the way finished with the State.
In November, her beloved principal came to her and asked "what would it take for you to stay?" What? A replacement had not been found! Cindy's immediate thought - not vocalized - was "an act of God."
Seriously! No worries, she was assured, the principal would get a substitute to finish out the year - perhaps, even Greg would sub!
A substitute? For Art? Painting, printmaking, color mixing, clay? All that still needed to be taught the rest of the year? That would not be fair to the students, the substitute or Admin.
After prayer and discussion with Greg, Cindy decided to finish the school year and retire July 1st.

All was well, the majority of the students were none the wiser.
Life went on but then ... BAM!- March 2020 happened

the pandemic - - lockdown - - remote learning

Teachers were given a week to get up and running with virtual school. Cindy learned to video her "activities" for her students. She invited Greg to be a "guest" for a nature activity. The students knew "Mr. Wise" as he had substituted in a lot of their classes.
As Cindy was overseeing Greg's video debut, she thought ... "hey, this could be a thing!" The seed was planted ...
It has been a long journey of learning new skills, editing video, being glued to the laptop ... but finally ... Island Art Gal has become a reality!
We would love to have you join us as we continue this journey!