By: | March 24, 2025 | | Middletown
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By Emma Sylvia
Visual art lives all around us in Monmouth County – you’ll find it in its natural form in the local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife; and you’ll find it in the creative works of our local artists, including those whose works are on display at Asbury Park’s Wooden Walls, Monmouth Art Gallery in Red Bank and the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery in Brookdale Community College, to name a few. And though most artists have some natural born talent within them, even the most talented among them have benefitted from having the right instructors take them under their wing. Nobody knows this better than Ms. Fish and Doodle Dude, the beloved duo of instructors at Middletown Arts Center.
Ellen Fisher, better known as “Ms. Fish,” and Art Kaney, better known as “Doodle Dude,” have been Middletown community staples for decades. Fisher has been teaching altogether for 55 years, spending 40 of them in Middletown, and Kaney too has four decades of instruction under his belt. Fisher’s nickname is (obviously) derived from her surname, while Kaney’s is a nickname from when he was in school. (Editor’s note: An art teacher named “Art” NOT selecting a nickname that revolves around that coincidence shows an incredible level of restraint on his part.)
“I was drawing all over a test like crazy,”Kaney remembers. “One of the kids said, ‘Man, you are the Doodle Dude.’” The alliterative nickname stuck.
To the students of Middletown, those nicknames are what they call their teachers to this day. Fisher lives in Red Bank, and Kaney lives in Lincroft, but their homebase of operations is – and from their love, likely always will be – in Middletown.
Kaney and Fisher are a collaborative duo working together to bring art to students in Middletown and all of Monmouth County. Their partnership began when Kaney – who had Fisher as a student at Middletown South – heard that his favorite art teacher was retiring.
“She’s a local guru,” Kaney says. “I started teaching here at the Middletown Arts Center and said, ‘You know who we should get here, because I hear she’s retiring? Ms. Fish.’” Kaney praises Fisher as the heart of the operation (where she delightfully acknowledges that I’ve got that quote on tape). “We’ve been working together ever since. It’s a natural thing.”
Fisher praises the arts for a child’s development. “It develops their creativity, their confidence and communication. We love kids; that’s our life – making kids happy,” Fisher attests.
The duo specializes in intuitive art, which allows children to allow their intuition to guide their art, as opposed to following stringent rules (though the teachers still teach the fundamentals like blocking, shading, movement and more). “We learn from the kids, too,” Kaney says. “There are hooks in life to teach the children. We don’t want kids playing video games all day – so, we make a hook of teaching a class on the art of video games. Put the console down and back to the drawing board. It’s really good.”
Intuitive art is critical for letting kids be comfortable with art and themselves. “It’s letting them do their own thing,” Kaney explains. “I went to Middletown South, and we had this one great art teacher that let us do our own thing.” This teacher, alongside Fisher, was part of Kaney’s journey as an artist, and he’s glad to extend that to his students today. He says that there’s one trick question that is the crux of their teaching: “Who wants to grow up to be an artist? The trick is: To be an artist, don’t grow up. Picasso has the saying, ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ You just have to keep that inner child.”
After teaching for so many years, the teachers acknowledge the challenges that they’ve faced. When the pandemic first began, the duo had to move online due to restrictions. Kaney said that despite the trials the pandemic beget, it was also a learning opportunity for him, being someone who was nervous to be in front of a camera.
“We put out there that we’d be teaching online,” he says. “It was a scary time. We got about 70,000 views.” Furthermore, the Arts Center put out a mailable painting kit to send to kids’ homes to follow along online.
Fisher acknowledges the importance of art during the pandemic for children. “It was so scary for the kids,” she says. “They had the opportunity to come here. We had a lot of big classes, and they could express themselves. That was a significant time for the little kids. They got to get out of the house and come to an environment, have fun and express themselves.”
Their results are plain for anyone to see. Fisher attests that students she taught 50 years ago still visit her, and she’ll teach their kids and their grandchildren. “My oldest student is 63,” she says. “One of the principals from Middletown, he said to me, ‘I still have my artwork that I did with you 40 years ago.’” Fisher’s motto is, “It feels great to create,” and Kaney’s is “It’s awesome to drawsome” – at the heart of both, no matter what, you should create, create, create.
A piece of advice the artists give parents is to stay away from assigning one of their children as the “artist” of the family. “Saying, ‘This is my sports child; this is my artist child.’ All kids are artists. Me and Ms. Fish can’t stand when parents throw away their kids’ doodles and artwork. Keep on drawing, keep on creating. When you get artblock, go back and look at your old doodles. You’ll think, ‘Where do I start?’”
Kaney and Fisher are ecstatic to be working with Middletown to foster Monmouth County residents’ love for art. With packed classes year-round, especially in the summer, the duo also offer a Day Off of School program. When schools are off for national holidays, the duo is still open for students to come in and learn. They collaborate with Fisher’s wife – aptly nicknamed “Doodle Dawn” – who puts on dance parties for the kids. “Kids come to class and ask, ‘Are we going to dance today?’” Kaney says.
Middletown is the duo’s home, both of them being born and raised in the town. Kaney says, “This school, this township – they took me under their wing. I had a bit of a rough life growing up. They told me that they were building an art center in Middletown, and I couldn’t believe it. I was so ecstatic. ‘We want you to be a part of it,’ they said. It’s really beautiful. The local politicians, they really take care of the arts here.” Fisher adds that she’s proud to be one of the people involved in the arts center’s teaching. “I’m so happy to be working here,” she says. “There aren’t many people of color here in Middletown. I’m happy the kids have the chance to see someone different. God made everyone different.”
“Our hearts are here 110%,” Kaney proudly says, hoping that all Monmouth County residents take a chance on heading down to Middletown to unlock their inner Picasso.
To learn more about the Middletown Arts Center, visit middletownarts.org
