Robert Sralla

Sralla has eighteen years of experience as an art teacher at the high schools in the Hazelwood School District. “Coming from Hazelwood, it is definitely a different kind of culture and I’m looking forward to experiencing it here in Clayton,” he said, “ […] coming into another experience, it’s nervous excitement.”

Although Sralla is new to Clayton, he is familiar with CHS art teacher Kamille Chavarin. “I transferred to another school in that district, the same school that Mrs. Chavarin was actually at. So we know each other pretty well,” he said.

Despite of teaching for so long, Sralla can proudly say he has not lost his passion for the job. “I’ve been doing my job for about half my life, but I enjoy it. It’s fun. I like interacting with young people. I can relate to them a lot. It’s fun, especially in the world of art. It’s more playful.”

Sralla’s passion for art can be traced back his childhood, “I was really into the teenage mutant ninja turtles growing up. I would just try to draw them all the time. We would have competitions in school and would see who could do the best. But that’s really what got me started,” said Sralla.

While he loved art from a young age, Sralla didn’t commit to pursuing art until switching his major several times in college. “At one point I thought I would be very interested in Spanish because in high school I really enjoyed my Spanish classes. And being from southern Texas, I was surrounded by Spanish culture and I thought maybe I would do that,” he said. But after rediscovering his passion for art, Sralla never turned back. He found his love for teaching through his professors.

“I never thought I would be teaching until I got into some more of my art classes and fell in love with my professors, who were great people,” said Sralla. Currently, Sralla’s favorite art to produce is figure drawings, “Anything to do with the human, because the human is fantastic,” he said. “It’s my favorite subject, I love people.” This year, Sralla with be teaching, Drawing & Painting II, Graphic Design I, Graphic Design II, and Digital Photography and Mixed Media.