Marilyn's Brush With Art

From the beginning, painting and the decorative arts have always fascinated me. I was the kid who cut out magazine illustrations, pasted them inside a box and then lay on the floor with my head inside the box. All the better to imagine myself inside the pictures. I glued decorative elements all over the mahogany woodwork of my childhood bedroom. What my mother thought was Cheerios in my closet turned out to be worms from a failed terrarium project. From building boat parade entries to painting five foot daisies on the hall wall, I was always creatively busy. During my children's early years, I made posters for every conceivable local event.

In 1974, a horse was responsible for the beginning of my "formal" art career. Due to an unpaid hay bill, I was looking for a job. I was hired at the Rochester Fair to work in the Art Department as a "boy". They usually hired boys to climb ladders and it was agreed that I would be acceptable. It was like Christmas. Between 400 and 500 paintings came in, to be hung, judged and displayed. Suddenly I was on the inside listening to the jurors critiques, learning what was good, what to avoid.

In 1989 I finally started painting. After years of assuming I couldn't paint, suddenly I was competing at the fairs and winning recognition. I took an art course at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL and followed that with a class with Kathi Hobbs of Lutz, FL. In 1991 my husband and I moved into our recreational vehicle and traveled the United States. For four years I further developed my skills at workshops in Santa Fe, NM and Scottsdale, AZ

My interest in cars stems from my father. He was a mechanic, rich in car stories. He taught me to name my cars because, "How else would you talk to them?"