Drawn back home: Freelance illustrator makes return to MHS as art teacher

By ALAYSHIA CHAMBERS 
The Tower 

Former Disney artist Jeffery Harvey has returned to Manteca High School, now in the position of teacher rather than student.  

Harvey has expressed his desire to be like a teacher he once had at Manteca High School, someone his students could look to when in need for life advice and artistic direction.  

"It’s a little weird,” he said of being back on campus as a teacher of record. “I just remember I had Mr. G as a teacher, and he was awesome, and he really pushed me forward with art and I’m hoping I can do the same thing that he did.” 

For Harvey, art is something that comes naturally, but it is also something he’s been practicing for a long time.

After graduating from Manteca High, Harvey majored in illustration at Brigham Young University in Utah. He eventually obtained a job with Disney, where he worked on the comic book Doorways to Danger.  

Artistic jobs are all Harvey has ever known, being that he’s only ever has two jobs — one with Disney and now as an art teacher. He explains that his artistic abilities have inspired his two kids, as they’re really involved in art, and he hopes to do the same with his students. Harvey expressed that throughout his everyday life, he has always been making art, whether it was for work or a new project, or as a 4-year-old, splashing colors on the walls of his childhood home. 

Although Harvey didn’t expect to be in a teaching position because of his previous job – freelance illustrating – he really enjoys the idea of sharing what he knows with other people, allowing them to absorb the knowledge he knows about art and art history.  His main goal to push kids to be more artistic.  

“Hopefully I just get better at teaching,” he said. “I can come up with good assignments. I can help kids express themselves.”