About Carrie
Hello and welcome to Carriosity. My name is Carrie Andraychak and I am an artist and craftsperson. Since I was a young child, I have loved to create things. It didn’t matter what I was making or the materials I had to work with. I could always turn it into something new. During my school years, I spent as much time as possible in the school art room. It was during my middle school years that I decided I wanted to become an art teacher. When I graduated high school, I enrolled in Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. The school closed right after I graduated leaving many other students with incomplete educations. I was able to complete and receive an Associate Degree in Graphic Design. A few years later, I realized I was not happy in the advertising world and enrolled in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in search of my teaching degree.
Immediately upon graduating, I was hired in the University school as a temporary art teacher. I taught three days a week and simultaneously started work on my master’s degree. During the following two years, I worked as a grad assistant for a wonderful professor in the fiber department at Indiana Univerity of Pennsylvania while completing my Masters of Art and my Masters of Fine Art.
I was very fortunate to be hired by the Greater Johnstown School District as a temporary art teacher at the middle school immediately upon my graduation. I substituted for that first year and was retained as a permanent employee the following year. And as they say, the rest is history. I have been teaching at the middle school for 28 years. I’d like to believe I am a good teacher. When I was completing my education, I made sure that I studied as many different media and art forms that I could fit into my schedule. I believe an art teacher needs to be well versed in many areas in order to share that knowledge with the students.
Now that my teaching career is nearing its end, I am embarking on this new adventure. Carriosity is a collection of my creative works that are as diverse as my talents. I will have everything from quilts and throws to stained glass pieces and hand-decorated gourds. This site will always be a work in progress. Items will change with my moods and the media I am preferring at the moment. If you stick around and follow me, you will get to know more about me and my crazy ideas. I never know where my next creative project will take me.