This research examines the personal and professional identity formation of artists who become art teachers and questions how they develop their professional teacher identities over time. Art teachers can often struggle with the loss of their art practice when they take up teaching positions in second-level schools (Dafiotis, 2013; Goetz Zirwan, 2006; Hall, 2010; Hickman, 2013, 2010; Thornton, 2013). Using a Life History approach, the research examines the identity formation of six artists who become art teachers; through the influence of home, their schooling, their artist formation, and their art teacher formation, into their professional life in the classroom. The experiences of two beginning-art teachers, two mid-career art teachers and two end-of-career art teachers are viewed through the lens of their particular model of art teacher formation. In doing so, the study hopes to uncover the tensions and synergies that art teachers experience in managing their teaching selves alongside their artistic selves. Three paradigms of art teacher education are used to frame the study of the artist-teacher 1) The Technical/Vocational Model, 2) The Expressivist Model and 3) The Critical/Contextualist Model. The research draws on literature relating to three main conceptual themes within a Social Constructivist Framework: Life History, Constructivism and Art Education theory. Ultimately, the research aims to shed light on the nature of the formation of artist-teachers and argues that their Signature Pedagogy (Shulman, 2005) is distinctive within schools. The data highlights how the broader issues of current education curriculum policy impact on art teachers today. It asks to what extent the Signature Pedagogies of the creative art teacher are recognised and valued and whether these qualities might provide a roadmap for a model of general education into the future.?