A Passion for Art

Sharon hadn’t touched a paintbrush until well into her retirement. In fact, art theory; its creation and the emotional undercurrent within, wasn’t even on her radar when she left academics in 2014. Then a new passion began calling for her attention. Aside from her role as ‘Nana extraordinaire,’ Sharon found her muse in colors and tones and textures and abstract visions that call to her inner consciousness.

Like running was for me and writing is now, Sharon’s art is her new positive addiction. It’s an inner drive to create and make something out of her imagination. It’s given her purpose, focus, energy and a drive to add more to her already busy life. She’s doing what she loves to do; bypassing the notion that retirement means ‘slowing down and relaxing.’ I get it. I’ve found my own elixir in novels and plays and screenplays.

Unfortunately, this past summer my latest play put the brakes on Sharon’s inner drive to create. ‘The Last Sentinel’ proved a huge distraction for Sharon and her art. But after twenty-five hundred truffles and great attendance numbers later, Sharon was ready to bounce back to her true love of creating art.

Fortunately the teacher in Sharon helped her quickly morph back into guiding her five grand-children through new techniques and processes for making gauze art, abstract impressions and the old favorite alcohol ink. Both Minnesota and Colorado proved apt backgrounds for lessons in these new approaches to creativity. 

While not as frequent as in the past, Sharon’s classes in Norde East Minneapolis and the Palm Springs Art Center still prove fertile proving grounds for new approaches to her art.

This summer, Sharon’s art traveled to Hawaii and Colorado where she conducted more classes for her grandchildren and introduced a traveling companion to coloring books. It was both relaxing and therapeutic.

A ‘must see’ each fall for Sharon and other artists is perusing the winners of the Minnesota State Fair art contest. Even though Sharon hasn’t yet made the cut, Brennan and Charlotte, her two Minnesota pupils, have both won coveted prizes three years running.

Sharon has finally agreed to display her art around the house.

It’s a fitting tribute to her new-found passion which has been less than five years in the making. I and the children and grandchildren could not be prouder.