‘The Beauty of Everyday Life’

John Bishop worked as an art teacher at East Rockaway High School for 35 years.

Herald file photo

In January, 2014, the community of East Rockaway mourned the untimely death of John Bishop, a beloved art teacher at East Rockaway High School. Over the course of his 35 years in the district, he touched and inspired literally thousands of students.

So, exactly two years after his death, on Jan. 16, 2016, an exhibition of John’s work will open at the Lynbrook Public Library.

In the immediate aftermath of John’s passing, his brother, Robert Bishop, fellow teacher and close friend for 15 years, Daniel Ezell, and Cesar Gil, his partner, began discussions as to how his artwork could be displayed to a wider audience. Very few people have had the opportunity to see the diversity and genius of his output.

“The agonizing aspect of this undertaking was deciding what had to be eliminated,” said Ezell. “There are so many works that cannot be displayed in one venue.”

The exhibition will include examples that date back to John’s youth. In addition to watercolors, drawings and sketches, there will be children’s books, for which he did illustrations, holiday cards, and many other works.Bishop, who taught art for 35 years, had just announced his retirement the June before he died, at 63 years old. Born on September 4, 1950, he had deep roots in East Rockaway. His father was born in the community 105 years ago, and Bishop attended ERHS, graduating in 1968. He lived in East Rockaway until he was 27, when he got married and moved to Lynbrook.

He attended St. Johns University before getting a job as a student teacher in a private school. He returned to his alma mater, East Rockaway High School to teach in 1978, when his first son was born. He has been The East Rockaway Education Foundation’s Man of the Year and has received many accolades for this artwork throughout the years.

In a Herald interview in June of 2013, Bishop said that “art is the only thing that has never been out of my life … I’m very lucky in that, some people don’t have anything that they really love to do. I like my classroom to be like a workshop. Very sloppy, very chaotic at times, but in the end you get what you want.”