Cayla Lyman

Adam Turkel poses with his art during his class on Sep. 6th.

Update: Some minor factual changes were made to the original story.

Lakewood lost our previous 3D art teacher Jayce Ganchou, who was one of the many beloved teachers that left us this past spring. We were on the search for new people to take up the not so easy job of educating students.

Singer and renowned artist in the community, Adam Turkle took on the task of teaching 3D art at Lakewood from a recommendation by 2D art instructor Saundra Bourne.

During the mid-70s’ a young Turkel was inspired by the comics he used to see as a kid and some album covers that helped develop his love for music bands and art. As he grew older, he wanted to get more involved and ended up taking art classes and started to go see concerts.

“As I went into art school, I started my own band, and I started playing and also doing art in the rock clubs where my band would play,” Turkel said.

While in his early 20’s he had a popular punk rock band called “The Beatings.” They would headline bands in his hometown. His band sells records in Germany, Australia and America.

Turkel is a world-class visual artist as well as a talented musical artist. Due to his efforts, he became well known in the art community for his posters and he even had his works featured in the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Westport and the coffee table book for the rock band Aerosmith.

In 1999, he moved down from Baltimore to St. Petersburg and continued to tour around Florida.

His daughter was just going into her freshman year during that time and due to the concert industry shutting down, he got into the teaching profession.

He wanted to give back to his community saying, “It would be a good time for me to give back and start teaching the next generation of artists to get them ready.” He wants to help a lot of young people realize what profession they could take on as an artist.

Turkel, with 25 years as a professional artist, became a teacher at Woodlawn Elementary School. He was able to connect with the children there and get them to enjoy the subject. For a few years, he taught at four schools, under different administrations. But with all of them, he was able to show that he could get kids into art shows and elevate it all together.

After knowing Saundra Bourne in the art community for many years, she was asked who she’d like to work with for the upcoming school year and Turkel was who she chose.

Now joining our spartan family he can share his experiences with the art scholars.  “I’m so happy to be here with all my amazing students and getting everybody ready to be in the 3D room”.

He did have a bit of trouble with him originally being a 2D artist by trade, but he says he likes a challenge. “It’s a new challenge for me that I can really go and grow with my students and grow as an artist with my artists so we can really work together,” Turkel said.

With all that Adam Turkel is an awesome teacher, he’s passionate about the things he’s teaching, and Lakewood High School scholars are learning from him and growing as they cultivate their talents and end up possibly making waves in the art community just like him as they grow into young adults.