As a farewell retirement exhibit, Greg Metzen’s display at Marshalltown Community College’s Ray Frederick Gallery is dedicated to his 24-year career as art faculty at Ellsworth Community College.

Metzen’s exhibit is on display now through March 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekdays.

Being a one-person art department at Ellsworth Community College, Metzen said he has learned to become a multidisciplinary artist.

“You try to teach everything,” Metzen said, having taught classes in art appreciation, art history, drawing, graphic design, painting, sculpture and ceramics.

The exhibit features recent and past artworks from four different mediums including ceramics, oil painting, silver photography and cast bronze sculpture pieces.

He said his diverse background as an artist helped get him the job at Ellsworth Community College, having been known to experiment during his time as a student at the University of Missouri Columbia.

“I liked to learn, but I also like to share knowledge,” Metzen said.

While he felt teaching was a distraction from his creating, he feels the two compliment each other.

“I’ve talked to people who have said, ‘Anything you do with teaching distracts from your focus when making your own art,'” Metzen said. “I’ve found out a bit more that they support each other.”

He said watching students grow as artists has been the most rewarding aspect of his career. Metzen has tried to shape his teaching around being less regiment orientated, steering away from routine assignment and working toward helping students find their own unique methods of expression.

Retiring as a full-time teacher, making art will now be Metzen’s main focus. He said talking to others in retirement or near retirement, many are unsure what their life will look like when their schedule opens up. He said he has always been a full-time artist when he retires in the back of his mind.

“I’ll have most of my time to just make art,” Metzen said. “At least when I step away from teaching I’ll have a full plate of things I can be working on. I hate giving up the teaching, but I’m looking forward to having time to focus on my artwork for a change.”

Metzen describes himself as a quiet artist, his pieces are not overtly expressive and his calming creations are intended to invoke the viewer’s own thoughts on emotions.

“They give you ideas but they’re not specific, it gets you engaged in a conversation with me through art,” Metzen said. “I’ve always preferred, in my life, calmness.”

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Call Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611

or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.