Margaret Teague Hartford – Artist

Teague discovers strange tangible forms in city back alleys and desert dump spots and weaves them into new forms to create and share stories. Her sketches and paintings often play w juxtaposition and irony.

Margaret Hartford has been a mentor, teacher, counselor and group facilitator in myriad settings for the past 35 years. She received a dual bachelor’s degree in Professional Writing and Psychology from SUNY at New Paltz in 1985 after which she worked as a writer and editor in the publishing field. She also completed coursework earning teaching credentials in secondary education and gifted education.

In 1989, she started and served as the lead teacher at an independent school in upstate New York which had as its primary goal educating “at risk” brilliant young people who were no longer welcome in more traditional school settings. She has since worked in North Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas as a teacher, counselor and gifted education coordinator for school districts in under-served and poverty-stricken locations.

In addition to her teaching credentials, she has completed training and serves as a teaching consultant with the National Writing Project; as such, she has worked extensively with teachers, students and community organizations to assist in the individual’s development of writing and other expressive arts as tools for self exploration and expression.

She has worked in several locations with homeless youth and youth in crisis using writing and art projects which afford clients an opportunity to process their life experiences and self perspectives in a reflective manner which they can then use as a tool for further exploration, re-framing of destructive behavior patterns, and identification of healthier behaviors.

Ms Hartford has completed course work to satisfy the requirements for her masters of arts in educational psychology with a focus on community counseling, graduating in May 2009 summa cum laude from the University of Texas. She currently lives and works in Dona Ana, New Mexico.