Travel Treasures ... Across America

Artist Charlotte Zink says that as a kid, if she had the option in school to sing a song, write a poem, write a paper, or make a diorama, she always chose the diorama.  That love of creating art has never abated.  It started at home growing up in New Orleans, continued at the University of Colorado majoring in Studio Art and Arts Education and has been nurtured in her beloved Colorado for some 40 years. 

Jordan Parah grew up around the arts.  Her mother was an art teacher, often Jordan’s art teacher.  And her father played and loved music, a major influence in Jordan’s artwork.  The love affair deepened at East Carolina University, majoring in sculpture and minoring in Art History, and has blossomed with her business Parahdise Sculpture in Greenville, North Carolina.  

The influences are many and the inspirations frequent, and public art lovers in North Carolina and beyond are the beneficiaries.

Reven Marie Swanson has had a lifelong love affair with the beauty of Colorado and the beauty of art.  The two loves merge seamlessly in her works of public art, installed and exhibited across the state and around the country.  For a part of her career, she worked at her day job, came home, and then got to work on her art until the wee small hours of the morning.  Now, she is able to focus on art, along with the occasional horseback ride and trail hike in her beautiful Colorado.

 In 3rd grade, Richard Pitts had a secret.  He wanted to be an artist.  The spark was lit by a teacher who became a mentor.  He kept it a secret from his family until he graduated high school.  But after that, his passion for a life in art could not be suppressed.  Some 65 years later, he is still as passionate about making art as he was in 3rd grade.

TIM ADAMS

“The Perspective of an Artist”

Tim Adams grew up in difficult economic times in Iowa.  There was an early love of art and a desire, a need to create public art.  He says his years at Iowa State gave him “the perspective of an artist and not just a day laborer.”  It took decades, many decades before he could realize the dream of working on public art full time.  And art lovers, primarily in Iowa, the Midwest and the Plains States, are the beneficiaries.

Kirk Seese grew up in Maryland, where he’s worked for most of his career.  But he’s also pretty comfortable on the road.  That’s a good thing, because it takes less time to list the states where his art is not exhibited than to list the states where his art is exhibited.  An early love of art has never abated and now we see the manifestation of that love all across the country.

We might associate retirement with rest and relaxation.  Joe and Terry Malesky are happy in their retirement creating public art.  The couple from Springfield, Missouri works together and the result is seen in exhibitions and installations across the country.

Sometimes opportunity falls in your lap when you are trying to create an altogether different opportunity.  Craig Snyder tried to get into a class about fused class.  The class kept getting cancelled.  So he got into a welding for artists class.  A love affair had begun and now his sculpture is seeing in public exhibits and installations across the country.

Hilde DeBruyne likely can’t remember a time in her life without art.  She grew up with it in Belgium.  Her father was a sculptor and her home was like a museum filled with art.  She embraced a love of art early on.  Now her work is seen in public exhibits and installations across America.

JIM GALLUCCI

Greensboro, North Carolina

If we are fortunate, there is a moment in our lives when the door to the rest of our lives opens up and we know enough to walk through.

Such is the case with sculptor Jim Gallucci of Greensboro, North Carolina.  It was more than fifty years ago in Syracuse, not far from where he grew up in Rochester, New York.  Jim experienced that moment, he walked through the door and admirers of his art in North Carolina and beyond are happy that he did.

I hope you enjoy this episode of “Travel Treasures: Art Across America.”