Before becoming an art teacher, Scott Hudson worked as a Disneyland Jungle Cruise skipper. To avoid boredom, he enjoyed improvising and adding his own spin to the base script about alligators and hippos.

It’s not surprising, then, that Hudson values teaching students the same artistic independence: honor the basics then write your own script.

“My passion lies in helping students learn to find the artists within themselves,” Hudson said. “I teach kids how to be artists and I think that’s its own art and its own skill.” 

Hudson didn’t originally plan to pursue a career in education, but when he was invited to train other ride operators at Disneyland, he found he had a talent for teaching.

While working at Disneyland, Hudson also attended art school. He saw a possible path for combining his love of art and his new interest in teaching.

In addition to teaching 3D Design and Drawing and Painting, Hudson’s most significant contribution has been building BEAST, a mechanical arts program. He started with research, grant applications and curriculum proposals in 2014 and taught the first classes in 2016. The program is comprised of a physics and mechanics course (MADE), a technical and biological arts course (BADE), and a class that incorporates all of these elements in student-led projects (CADE). 

Physics teacher and MADE instructor Jim Pitochelli says that Hudson has created opportunities for students to have real world experiences including field trips to Knott’s behind-the-scenes tours highlighting haunted mazes with the engineers and make-up and wardrobe artists, Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles, Immortal Masks, Fractured FX studio, in-person and Live Zoom meetings with professors and industry special effects professionals and artists. 

“Mr. Hudson brought to BEAST a sense of business professionalism and industry networking which have played a significant role in our industry connections and relationships,” Pitochelli said.

Pitochelli says he’s enjoyed collaborating with Hudson, but says that Hudson seldom needed help understanding the physics involved for BEAST projects.

For example, in 2022 BEAST collaborated with the FUHS Theater Department to create two major pieces for the production of The Skin of Our Teeth—a Woolly Mammoth costume and a dinosaur head and neck.

“I remember helping with the U-Joint for the neck,” Pitochelli said, “but [Hudson] figured out the main gimbal bearings and the body joint. What’s amazing is that when he wants to build something he’ll find a way and figure it out every time.”

In 2023 BEAST also created award-winning costumes for the FUHS production of A Monster Calls. Hudon says he’s proud that his students were able to apply their skills to such a complex project.

“The monsters were really just so amazing,” Hudson said, “but the best thing was this great ability of combining visual arts and the performing arts.”

The students who designed the costumes won first place for 3D Design at the District Art Show. The students’ work of creating custom-fit costumes for the actors also earned a Cappies (theater) award. 

“Getting to see the monsters return to the stage one last time in front of all these award-winning theater kids, and seeing their reactions, was an amazing experience,” Hudson said.  

Hudson’s students admire his teaching ethic. “He runs his classroom like a workplace, so it’s nice to get to work in an environment where I’m not treated like a child,” said CADE student Charlie Eisenacher Knott. “He doesn’t tell you no, that’s stupid, that would never work. He says, ‘Here, let’s try doing this this way instead,’ and you can ask him a bunch of questions and he is not gonna be, like, that was a stupid question.”

Senior Eden Ochoa appreciates how hard Hudson works to create a family feeling in his classes. “He’s very open to students of all different backgrounds and different skill levels, and helps to find a place for them,” Ochoa said.

As a life-long artist, innovator and educator, Hudson is open to finding new challenges as he retires this week after teaching for 20 years at Fullerton High School.

“I think maybe in retirement I’ll figure out what I really like to do,” he said.