Here comes the “matriarch” of Women Sharing Art!  A story as long as mine is hard to condense!

I am American by birth, French by language, Canadian by family, mutt by pedigree, Catholic by faith, poor by heritage, widow by regret, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother by love, housekeeper by despair, cook by risk, writer by pretension, hostess by pleasure, traveler by whim, teacher by education, failed Orphanage Founder by destiny, volunteer by compassion, Pastoral Worker by employment, artist by passion!

My large family has eaten a lot of burned so-called meals, breathed a lot of turpentine and constantly had to step over bulky art stuff, mine and my students!  Still do!  Yet I never heard a complaint, so my thanks to all of you, kids!

Though in Montréal I graduated in French Education from le Collège Jacques-Cartier and belonged to the American Federation of Radio Artists, I also found time to take evening courses at the Beaux-Arts and to illustrate a children’s book.  Always eager for the new, at age 21 and with my parents’ permission, I used my dual citizenship to take a bus to New York City where I immediately found both a part-time job in the Empire State Bldg. as costume jewelry designer and nearby lodgings at the Martha Washington Hotel for Women.. That allowed me to attend the private Grand Central School of Art, and I later transferred to the National Academy of Design.  But after three years of artistic euphoria, my marriage and large family presented me with another aspect of deep joy.  Holding my babies in my arms, I was then limited to a few portraits, banners and murals here and there.  But with our move to Sayville and our seventh child entering kindergarten, my Muse suddenly woke up and I flew back with ecstasy into the arms of frenzied painting, starting with a large mural of Michelangelo’s Creation of Man right on my fresh dining-room wall.  It was then that an artist friend led me to Wet Paints Studio Group. Its marvelous incentives fired me up into repeatedly winning first place and to attract students of all ages and talent, My Bachelor of Visual Arts degree from SUNY was eagerly followed by graduate studies in Eastern Art and its Philosophy.  Since all Eastern Art started with religion, we studied each faith, and I was delighted, religion always having been deeply interesting to me.  

Depending on my mood, my oils pastels, and charcoals, often religious and/or usually tender, can also come out as shockingly expressionistic!  I was accepted - O wonder! - at the following Juried Shows in N.Y.C.: 

 Pastel Society of America, Audubon Artists, National Academy Galleries, National League of American Pen Women, In.,, Catherine Lorillard-Wolfe Art Club, Inc., National Arts Club, American Artists Professional League, Inc. And on Long Island: Smith Township Arts Council (Best-in-show), Parish Art Museum

I also exhibited in many non-juried shows, winning (again “O wonder!) countless “Best-in-Shows”,  “First Prizes” and other “Awards”:  Wet Paints Studio Group,. BAFFA, Lake Art Association, Inc. Guild Hall, Dowling College, Stony Brook University, Bayard-Cutting Arboretum.

In the midst of clusters of migraines, I was hanging my paintings in institutions, libraries, churches and schools, all the while seeing to my husband, teaching Art, French and Religion, cleaning house, mounting demonstrations, burning meals, restoring Fine Art, driving the children, leading Art Therapy, meeting the kids’ friends, painting portraits, generally from life, framing them.  These now hang in homes and businesses across USA, in Canada, Europe, India.  I also served as judge for local schools for a Sayville October Fest and for the past twenty years, I’ve been doing religious pen and ink drawings as teaching aids

For a large number of years, how exciting to teach Art not only to children but to adults, including classes of accomplished artists, and to give demonstrations in pastel, portrait as well as in monoprinting to Art Groups and to schools! Meanwhile, I managed to illustrate covers of magazines, programs, etc, restore Fine Art as well as do Art Therapy, and to donate paintings for raffles at Southside Hospital, SMBA, and other causes.

During that time, I was part-owner of the Sayville Walk-Up Gallery (now defunct, alas!) was invited to become a permanent member of the Loring Gallery in Cedarhurst, LI. and was listed in the Suffolk Register of Artists of both the Hecksher Museum and the Islip Museum. 

I am struck by the continuity of our lives. For instance my horror in WWII at hearing young friends newly arrived from Europe told me their stories as survivors of the Holocaust actually going on!  That image incubated in m all of those years, till in 2006 my pastel, “World History” was born.  It now has the honor of hanging in permanence at the Suffolk Co. Holocaust Center.

Moreover, I am a member of Wet Paints Studio Group and have recently received the wonderful privilege of a “scholarship” by Women Sharing Art, Inc.,