Choices and Decisions… are a big part of life.
How an art journey almost didn’t happen.
One may think artists knew that they wanted to be artists from a young age. Of course, everyone is different and we all have our own stories. My story began in elementary school. Although I actually didn’t have an art teacher until ninth grade, I looked forward to Friday afternoons at my small Catholic elementary school when I usually got to do an art activity. Sisters from a convent taught us all of the subjects, including art. In fact, we had 2 grades in each classroom! Actually, I wasn’t taught much art during those 8 years. I remember the small closet with a wood door and shelves in the back of the room, next to the large “cloak” closet where we hung our coats and placed any lunchboxes if we weren’t walking home for lunch (as I did). On the shelf was a packet of multicolored construction paper: pink, blue, yellow, and a little on a cream-colored paper. I think many times “art” was just a mimeograph copied paper that we colored or a plain paper with a simple direction, often religious in nature. I remember 2 projects we did (with a religious theme—probably Easter). One was using small pieces of colored egg shells to create mosaics. Another was using uncooked rice for a type of mosaic. I guess these projects kept our little fingers busy, so that the nuns could have a break, and then have something to decorate the room. Other students praised my artistic creations and my art grades were always very good, so it was nice to have that recognition. In elementary school, as many children do, I considered being a classroom teacher.
Having 7 children, my mom didn’t save our art as some parents do today, nor did she have the time to sit with me or acknowledge me very much. My mother did the best she could, and we were loved, but she worked full time and had a lot on her mind. My sister, Jane who is two years older than me, and I sometimes sat at the dining room table, where we also did our homework, and we drew, colored, and designed “cut-out” dolls and their outfits. Jane was always so much better than me, and later in elementary school, she showed her skills in creating doll clothing with the sewing machine.
In high school, I was able to take extra art classes my senior year. I appreciated my art teacher, Mr. Kleppinger who often introduced classes with a brief talk before letting the students go on to doing their projects. Since I had the extra classes— Art A and Art B, I was able to work on some projects on my own, such as oil painting, oil pastel drawing, ink drawing, and a copper strip sculpture, and surely more than I remember. These are paintings from H.S and the first year of college.
Our family struggled financially and my parents had their problems. At the end of my senior year my parents separated and I moved with my mom and 3 sisters into my grandmother’s house. The older ones were out of the house. My mom was a nurse who stayed home with her first 4 children, but as child #5, she was working full-time second shift: 4 pm-12 am. My grades were always great and I applied for college, being limited to 2 state schools. I was planning to major in Psychology, since the brain is so fascinating and I thought perhaps I could do counseling. Well, I found out that I would need more years of schooling, which I knew we couldn’t afford, and Penn State was more geared to psychological animal studies, unless I continued my education longer, which I knew we couldn’t afford. I had problems with my roommate my first year and I remember using the pay phone to make long-distance calls in the hallway and crying to my mom. I hate to say, but, “kids today don’t know how good they have it”. I literally had to have the money, and in coins, and was cut off when the money ran out. These moments can be traumatic when you are emotional and don’t have money. I had similar difficult times talking to my boyfriend (now my husband) on the phone.
In my first year of college, I was in the Liberal Arts program, taking a language and many basic classes. That summer, as I considered changing majors, I talked to my mother who told me to get a nursing degree because “You could always go back to it”. I think she was thinking that if I had children and stopped working, I could still go back into nursing. Actually, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, since there are medical changes and continued schooling, but I suppose in her day that seemed reasonable. So, I listened to mom and was at PSU my second year for registration. By the way, I never had a car to get to and from college for 4 years and had to figure out ways to get to school and home, except for the first and last day (I believe, and maybe a couple of other times). If anyone is old enough and has seen rip-off requests, I used to take a sheet of paper and write a request to get a ride with a stranger, with slits cut in the bottom of the paper with my phone number on it. (Remember, not a cell phone, so often I wasn’t even available to communicate. I also didn’t have a phone in my room.; a payphone was down the hall.)
When I got to Penn State, and on the rare occasion spoke to a student counselor, he asked me “What do YOU really want to do?” I always liked art, and having heard that a fine arts degree was not a good guarantee of income I chose not to do that. I decided that day to register for one art class: watercolors… to see if I was good enough or to see how it goes. Well, walking across campus with a large portfolio in all sorts of weather wasn’t pleasant, but I had a trusty green parka, Timberland boots, and determination.
One evening I was talking to my mom, which was not a common habit, I complained about my roommate and I was very upset. She told me to quit school, come home (3 1/2 hour drive away), and get a job. She wanted me to help her pay the bills. Life was not easy for my mother and she was struggling, worried about paying bills, and working full time. My parents were able to obtain a grant for a portion of my education, in addition to a 10-year student loan, which I paid. I am very grateful for that! So, knowing that my mom wasn’t paying for my college education, I made the important decision to stick it out and stay in school.
So, there were several crossroads with choices, decisions, and uncertainty. I am happy that I pushed through unpleasant situations, scrubbed floors and washed dishes in the dining halls, got summer jobs, and graduated with a grade point average of 3.8 on a 4.0 scale with a degree in art education. I taught art for 35 years (including a few part-time years as my third child was a baby). Now, I am happy to have more time to spend doing art, traveling, and enjoying life with my husband.
Since I was an art teacher, I introduced my elementary and middle school students to a variety of media, techniques, and processes, including drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, 2D design, ceramics, weaving, and sculpture. My creative lessons encourages students to move beyond their current level of thinking and abilities. Even now, I continue to explore a variety of genres in painting collage, and mixed media.
This is me at my solo art exhibit at the Gallery 840
Allentown, PA. I was happy to exhibit 70 works of art and a few mini-paintings, even though it was quite a task to organize, measure, frame and type all of the descriptions.
To browse my art click here, or use the link above. From the home page, you can select a category to view first. I hope you enjoy my paintings and mixed media collages! Sign up for my newsletter while you visit my website, or click below.