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Artist’s Statement:
In the days of my childhood, I
dabbled in making chalk drawings on sidewalks, crayoned drawings for
my 4th and 5th grade teacher’s
social studies bulletin boards, posters and murals in high school, tempera-painted
holiday scenes on the plate-glass windows of my home and village businesses. Most
desirable for me at age 10, was rainy-day drawings of my own paper dolls
with dresses in glamorous Hollywood styles.
Unfortunately, I did not become
serious about a career in art because the consensus of opinion in my
family was, “Artists are a dime
a dozen, and you cannot make a living drawing.” It was only
when I decided to pursue the more practical career of teaching (an okay
from the 4 teachers in my family), that I stepped around this obstacle
by majoring in art. Even then (the 60’s in San Jose), Art was not considered an academic major for elementary school teachers. I had to have an academic minor to qualify for a teaching credential.
Under my 35 years of teaching, I was a strong advocate of the arts and
their value in the lives of my students. I saw that participation
in the visual and performing arts (VAPA standards) was daily and pleasurable,
hence the subsequent Cultural Council/Neil Hellman “Art Teacher
of the Year Award, 2001” which I felt honored to receive.
Now retired, and taking as many
art classes as possible, I can finally fully engage in creative endeavors
myself, and actually complete them. As
a result, I am finding on my daily walks, or in the car, an increasingly
heightened awareness of the play of light and shadows, the shapes and
colors in the scenes before me. Repetitions of
line and patterns, and temperatures of the colors of dawn and dusk intrigue
me. The resulting processes of painting en plein air or in the
studio can often be frustrating and unsettling, but it is almost always
relaxing (with music), stimulating, and exhilarating. There is a freedom
and growth in being able to release a painting upon completion and begin
anew. Giving, selling, sharing or donating a requested piece
of my work is an added pleasure of that relinquishment adding to the
excitement of being an artist. |
Art
Resume:
- BA Art, SJSU. 1967: Standard
Elementary Teaching Credential, 1968
- Mt. School Teacher (1969-2003), Art Consultant (2003-2005)
- Arts grant Writer, Mountain
School: Packard
Foundation Grants (5),
California State ArtsWork Grants (2), Schools
Plus Grants (7)
- Arts Steering Committee, (Santa Cruz Cultural Council), 1998-2004
- TCAP and BayCap participant, 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002
- Arts Curriculum Design Committee, County Office of Education, 2000
- Advancing School Arts School Program Review (ASA Packard Comm.),
2002
- Board of Directors Santa Cruz Art League, 2003-present
- “Arts Educator of the Year” Award
(Cultural Council/Neil Hellman), 2001
- Open Studio participant, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
- SPLAT Art Tour participant, June, 2004
- Winners’ Circle, pastel
landscapes, Santa Cruz Art League, June/July-2004
- “Arts in the Mountain” workshops
with pastelists Dawn Emerson, Bend, Oregon, 2005;
pastelist Richard
McKinley, Taos, NM, 2006 & Bend, Ore., 2008, Kitty Wallis, 2009
- Street Painting with Chalk, PVAC, with Genna Panzarella:
Register Pajaronian
article/photo, August, 2005
- “Pastel the Eloquent Medium” juried
group exhibit, Pajaro Valley Arts Council
and Gallery, July-Sept.,
2005; Register Pajaronian article, 8/2005
- Five-Artist exhibit, Santa Cruz County Government Bldg., Feb.-Mar.,
2006
- Two paintings juried Statewide
Landscape Exhibit, Santa Cruz Art League,
May-June, 2007, “First
Place Pastel” award for “Shady
Respite by the Bend”..
- Santa Cruz County Fair, Fine
Arts Exhibit, two honorable mentions for “Sand Dunes”,
and “Afternoon
Near the Grove,” Sept.,
2007
- One-Artist exhibit, Simpkins
Swim Center, Open Studio “Florals,” Nov.-Jan.,
08
- One artist exhibit, “Farm Animals”,
Santa Cruz Public Library, Jan.-Feb., 2008
- Five-Artist exhibit, Santa Cruz
County Government Bldg., Feb.– Mar.,
2008
- Santa Cruz Art League 90th Birthday Art Faire, 34 artists, May, 2009
- Santa Cruz County Fair, “Best in Division – Painting
Professional”, “Schwann Lagoon”, Sept., 2009
- “Neary Lagoon” juried Sculpture & Drawing
Exhibit pastel painting, Santa Cruz Art League, Dec. 2009
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