St. Francis School Faculty & Staff

Carol Rabel

Art

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and A Master of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University. I had a wonderful year in New York City on a scholarship from the Whitney Museum. After graduate school, I moved to Texas to teach art at the University of Texas. I had never been to Texas before, and I totally fell in love with Austin. I left Austin briefly to teach art at Ohio State and Illinois State. Illinois and Ohio were great, but they could not compare to Austin.

While teaching at UT, I met my husband, Bradley Petersen. He is a professor of Art at UT and a fabulous painter. We have two teenage boys, Nicolas and Timothy. Nicolas goes to McCallum and loves computers. Timothy goes to Lamar and, wonder of wonders, wants to be an artist.

I have been teaching art at St. Francis for fifteen years. It has been so rewarding to teach here over the years. I have had wonderful, talented students from kindergarten through 8th grade. I am always amazed at the creativity of the students. I love seeing how the kids grow and change from year to year. The students at St. Francis are what keep me coming back year after year.