A Passion to Create Art and a Calling to Teach It
Ari Crosby defined his future at a young age. “I started taking art seriously at around age seven,” he says. “I knew I wanted to go down that path.”
It was a path that eventually led Ari to PCCC where this month he receives an Associate in Fine Arts (AFA) degree at PCCC’s 54th Commencement ceremony.
Though Ari defined his path as a child, he refined it at PCCC, where he discovered, as a supplemental instructor for the Studio Art program, that his passion for creating art became a calling to teach it.
“I know now this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said on a recent afternoon, while overseeing an art studio on the Wanaque campus where he deftly provided guidance to a student who was working on a still-life painting assignment.
Art runs in Ari’s family. His mother is a graphic designer and his brother, Ollie, is also an art student at PCCC. From childhood, Ari followed online art instructors, learning on his own about materials, techniques, and new genres.
Ari and Professor Azi Azadeh study his dollmaking supplies.
Passionate about drawing and painting, he also enjoys doll-making and jewelry restoration, and he sees art where others may not, such as within a chair or some other utilitarian object, that as he says, “started in somebody’s imagination,” then became real.
As a high school student at Passaic County Technical Institute, Ari majored in advertising art and design. At first, he considered a career in packaging design, but quickly changed his mind when he came to PCCC.
Ari provides tips to an adult student in the art studio at the Wanaque Campus.
“What I appreciate most about PCCC is the amount of support I received from my professor (Azadeh Amiri, known to students as “Professor Azi,”) and the amazing opportunities I’ve had here with jobs, exhibitions, and making connections.”
For the past two years, Ari’s work appeared in PCCC’s annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. Though he excels in painting flowers and use of color, it was his black and white pen drawing, Foreclosure Eviction, depicting a turbulent scene with windswept branches veiling a terrified face, that received the “Most Creative” award in the 2025 exhibition.
Last month, PCCC participated in a special First Thursday event at the Montclair Art Museum (Montclair, NJ) and Ari was thrilled to see his work exhibited at a well-known art museum. “That was a golden star on my resume.”
On campus, Ari organized several events, including a “paint and chill workshop” where participants were encouraged to create art related to flowers. “I assisted them, gave tips, and even learned a few things myself about using watercolor pens,” he said. “I made some great connections.”
After graduation, Ari will continue his paid job as a supplemental instructor at PCCC while considering a transfer to William Paterson University or Rutgers to pursue a degree in education. As a teacher, Ari aims to emulate his professor.
“What inspires me most about Professor Azi is her ability to bring her students to where they want to be,” he said. “That’s what I want to do…encourage people to express themselves through art and to know that what they envision in their imagination, they can create in their art.”
Written by Linda Telesco
Photos by Page Saunders
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