Teachers have long struggled with stress and burnout due to the job’s physical, mental, and emotional complexities. This autoethnography explores teacher stress and burnout through six social fiction short stories and accompanying photographs. My personal accounts of teaching art inform the discussion around why so many teachers are experiencing burnout and why art teachers struggle to maintain an artistic practice while teaching. To understand more precisely the issues that teachers are facing, I have identified four prevalent challenges for art teachers. These issues are insufficient teacher preparation, lack of teacher support, excessive workload, and breakdown of identity. Additionally, a fifth theme, “connection” emerged as a positive intervention. This thesis also explores how connections to the school community and staff, students, and through engagement with an active art practice are beneficial to an art teacher’s well-being.