“You want a piece of me?”

If art professor Ron Mazanowski is asking the question, the presidents of Brazil, Chili and Honduras answer “yes.”

The leaders of those three countries all own works from Mazanowski’s collection, a ceramics teacher at NIU for the past 26 years.

“Working with clay involves a tremendous amount of work ethic. It helps teach students patience and involves a process that must be followed correctly and not hurried,” he said. “If the process is hurried, then the piece will fall apart, and if the student doesn’t make good use of time, the piece will dry out.”

Mazanowski grew up in a blue-collar family but still had an artist’s touch even at a young age.

“My brother and I have always had a natural ability,” he said. “I always liked to work with clay, and he was always extremely talented in drawing and painting,”

Mazanowski said he learns and teaches by doing things hands on.

“Art deals with a different way of finding things out,” he said. “A lot of times students that don’t respond well to other ways of learning respond very well to the process of learning that art uses.”

Mazanowski said he enjoys having students “discover the light” through art and credits raising his three children for helping him with his teaching.

“I can see my children in all of my students now,” he said.

Senior fine arts major Derick Scarbrough said Mazanowski inspires his students.

“His personality and demeanor relate to students very well and because of that, it makes you want to learn from him,” Scarbrough said. “No one wants to learn from a boring teacher.”

When he’s not teaching, Mazanowski continues to work on new pieces and has more than 60 pieces of his work showing in public places all over the world. However, he holds on to his earliest works for examples to show his students.

“One of the difficulties of teaching is that you tend to forget how difficult it was starting out as a student,” he said. “By keeping some of my earlier work, I can relate better with my students and remember what it was like and not hold them to an unrealistic standard.”

Mazanowski gathers his inspiration from various people he has met and from the work of other artists.

“People that have inspired me the most are artist[s] and teachers I have met and been able to discover who they are as people,” he said. “Their passion has always stayed with me and that can’t help but influence you.”