Art Beginnings
I grew up in Burlington, NC and graduated from Walter Williams High School in 1972. My first grade teacher, Ms McAdams, told my mother that I had an aptitude for art. However, I did not take art classes until the fifth grade. These were held in an old and dusty Victorian house near the Episcopal church in downtown Burlington and they were taught by Eleanor Seng. Eleanor studied art with a Mr. Holzhauer and he was a student of the famous Robert Henri, the leader of the Ashcan School of American art. Eleanor had a knack for keeping art lessons exciting and interesting. We did something different every week. We might draw, blob paint, mold something out of clay, cut linoleum blocks and print them, but it was always different and interesting. Eleanor had three boys and her husband Jerry sold medical equipment. Everyone in her family seemed to do some art too. She put up art shows of student work, probably anywhere that would let her hang it publicly to display, and made us feel proud of what we had done. I remember she had one high school student that she thought was very special and she worked hard to get the student a resume to apply to the Governor's School. I think she got in. That is how I remember Eleanor, as someone interested in her students, who always did her Fred best to make her classes fun and stimulating.
Eleanor left Burlington when I was in the sixth grade. I think she moved back but I did not know. She took me by the head and shook it and emphatically suggested I should always be doing art.
But when Eleanor left Burlington, art stopped for me for a while. I played coronet in the band and tried a variety of sports. But I did not make art anymore until much later. My next art adventure happened in college. I worked in a lab with a fellow that reminded me of a mischievous version of John Denver. We worked in a lab together. He was a neurobiology graduate student and we were out on a sunny afternoon taking a break from the lab at "He's Not Here," the bar on Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill. He picked up a girl there at the bar who was a graduate student in art at the university. After a couple of beers, I told her that I was interested in painting again and she told me to paint an old pair of shoes. I don't think I ever painted the shoes but the notion of painting stuck in my head. The details for me are blurred at this point but I cut a linoleum cut of an old hobo, the way I remembered doing in Eleanor's class. Then I bought a beginner paint set and painted a very detailed still life. It was very still if you know what I mean. The hobo was charming on the other hand.
This was the beginning of my painting again. This was around 1980. In that year, I befriended the owner of the art store at the Carrboro mall and took a pastel portrait class there. Anyone close to me became my portrait victim during that time. I didn't always achieve a good likeness, and flattery was totally beyond my grasp, but the portraits were fun to look at and showed some potential I think. Not long after my portrait class adventure, I was in the art store looking around when a petite woman walked in who resembled my memory of Eleanor Seng. I said, "Are you Mrs Seng?" and she said "Yeah, who the hell are you?" She invited me to her art classes and painting became at least a weekly event. Painting with her class was a lot like what we did in the fifth grade. We might paint a still life, portrait, full figure painting, plein air, you name it we did it. Maybe abstraction would be an exception to that statement? But we painted from life ninety percent of the time. It was great fun and challenging. Art with Eleanor was about observation, extracting the essence of what you were painting and making more of what it was.
I started my medical residency in 1981. This was a bad year for painting, maybe painting one time per month. I completed the program in 1984 and joined the medical workforce. Being passionate about doing art and practicing medicine was an awkward dance. And even more awkward if you try to integrate the other parts of life. And so my life was a little clumsy and busy. But painting has always been there, along with a healthy interest in art history. And I have enjoyed it and all the adventures that went with it. I could write a book but I think I would rather spend the time painting.
I retired in 2015 and have been painting nearly daily for three years. The eight years before I retired were light on painting for many reasons. So, starting back has been a bit of a struggle. I feel that it is coming along very well. I am excited about developing into a better artist/painter.
As I present this show in the Captain White House Sister Galleries, I reflect on the fact that I have returned to where art began for me in Alamance County. I thank the people who thought there should be a community art class in that old Victorian house in Burlington. Thank you for choosing an art teacher who could show students their potential and talent, make them feel special. I know my mother deeply desired that I would be a golfer, but she compromised and took me to that art class in downtown Burlington. Thanks Mom and a special thank you to Eleanor Seng for being such a wonderful teacher, friend, and mentor. There are so many people who helped me learn along the way. It really takes a village to make an artist. After all, art comes from somewhere.
