What do Art, History and Swimming Have in Common?

 

Did you have a favorite teacher in school?  I had three: Miss Dewey for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grade Art, Mr. Garber for U.S. History my senior year of high school, and Miss Campbell was my high school gym teacher.  The pumpkin is one of my 4^th grade drawings for Halloween.  Seems appropriate to post here today.

I was one of those right-brain learners back when schools thought the only way to teach was the way left brain individuals thought and learned. Miss Dewey understood my right brain way of thinking and it worked well for me.  Unfortunately she was only in my class for an hour one day a week. She always gave me an A and sometimes an A+. I didn’t get another A+ until I was in college.

Art is also the reason Mr. Garber is a favorite. He too understood we aren’t all left-brain learners.  He gave us an option at the end of the semester, a term paper or a project of our choice that depicted something we had studied during that year.  I choose to do an oil painting of a plantation with hard to see slave quarters behind it, visible only if one looked closely. I got an A and he asked to keep the painting.  Of course I let him. Now I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of it but that was 1957, I was more interested in a grade than keeping track of the painting.

Miss Campbell had nothing to do with art so why was she a favorite?  My other love was water, being in it or on it. It still is but that’s an aside. Swimming was part of gym in high school and Miss Campbell was one of the teachers.  She selected a few of us for Synchronized Swimming.  We were good! We demonstrated at a major university. Unfortunately we got no recognition from our school, girls didn’t do sports.  But it didn’t matter, to me. I was in the water and loving every minute of it.

I wanted to continue swimming in college so I signed up for a class.  After the initial swim where the teacher put us through the paces the instructor told me I couldn’t take the class. Maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, I had to ask anyway.  Her answer, “I can’t teach you anything.”  What a bummer, I guess Miss Campbell was a better teacher than she was given credit for.  However, not being selected to be in the synchronized swim class prompted me to take Senior Life Saving and Water Safety Instruction. They gave me more time in the pool and prepared me for a job as a lifeguard during summer break. Good choices.

And another of my 4th grade drawings....

I Never Thought I'd Be An Abstract Artist

Over the years I’ve traveled down many artistic paths.  Watercolors, oils, textiles, graphite, printmaking, jewelry and clay were steps along the way.  I've even done some china painting. Here are some versions of past works:

Recently I've settled on abstract painting and collage.

 

Looking back at pieces that got the most attention through the years, Abstraction and Collage seems to have always worked their way in to some of my work.

I like old. Papers worn and cherished by someone before they found their way to me.  Objects that show signs of wear, peeling paint and other well worn surfaces get my attention.  Those elements show up in most of my work.  Here is a sketch done after a day taking photos at a pile of old dock parts.

Parts of this may find the way into an abstract piece. I have boxes of sketchbooks full of scenes and subjects that caught my attention over the years.  My newer sketchbooks tend to have more examples of marks, shapes and textures that get my attention.

 

Rearranging Always Reveals Something

Clutter clearing again.  And this is one of my finds.

I found it on a floppy disc so you know it was awhile back. I don't remember doing abstracts back then but I must have been thinking about it.  

For several years the office just off my studio hasn't been used as an office.  Our house is old and a wireless connection just doesn't go everywhere.  Before wireless my computer was on the desk on one wall and the printer was on a small table on a different wall.  Enter wireless -- it reached the printer but not the computer.

So I got a laptop and moved it to the desk in our den and the office became a place to put stuff that I didn't want to deal with at the time.  Well time finally came this week.  I got tired of walking back and forth between the den and my studio office.  My printer was on its last legs and I had recently been researching wireless boosters. I bought a booster and a new printer.

The booster is wonderful, I can get a signal anywhere in the house, even on our patio.  Hooray! But now it's time to make room for the laptop on the desk where my computer was still sitting.  That never went away though I only used it for one thing -- my painting inventory.  That is the inventory up until the time I went wireless.  The program I had didn't get upgraded to work on the newer versions of Windows so I disconnected the computer from the internet and left it working.  Someday I may take the time to move all of that information to the laptop -- maybe.  

I'm not done sorting but I've found all sorts of old photos and other things I've saved.  So far I've spent 3 days sorting and pitching.  Hopefully I will be able to finish this weekend and get back to making art on Monday.  And be able to do my scanning and computer work in this office just off my studio.  Life is good!