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Many of the teachers I worked with were unsure about what to do with retirement. Several became substitute teachers and discovered the other side of the classroom. A few enjoyed having no preparation and walking out at the end of the day with no workload to carry home. Others were dismayed by the lack of respect and control they experienced. They left the substitute pool and tried other part-time jobs--in retail, in the library, or offices. Some taught in private schools. It was too difficult for them to imagine another life.
I planned on re-creating myself. I left school so far out of my mind that when I saw a school bus on the street late the next August, I was bemused. My mind had pushed it so far away that I (momentarily) wondered what I was seeing. That is a real mind-set change. So I managed to mentally erase my old life, but creating a new one was a challenge. I decided to become an artist. My problem was that I had no background in art--not even classes in high school or college. My lack of credentials in a credential-driven society is still a problem for me. I have been retired for 4 years, have had some success as an artist, but still can't use the word "artist" to describe myself. I am working on it.
People have always called me "creative." Over the years I had tried a variety of crafts--mostly sewing and embroidery with some ceramics thrown in. Since my daughters participated in local theater groups, I found myself making costumes for several productions. It was a small step to designing men's coats for women. Jan Jones and I started a business called "True Glitz" in 1990--nearly 15 years before retirement. We had fun taking men's jackets and adding different elements to make them into women's jackets. At first we only added lace, ribbons, jewelry, and rosettes. Then we became bolder, adding ties, gloves, epaulets, chains, and doilies. Our business became a local success. But after 5 years of decorating, we decided that we had done everything to a man's coat that we could think of doing and ended the Glitz business.
Jan was done with having a side business (we were still both teaching), but I needed to have a creative outlet. After searching for an idea I came up with "Character Creations --Little People of the Imagination." These were figures made of Sculpy which I sculpted and clothed. My early figures were simple and had bodies filled with sand. Then I added more elements and a background scene. I used my love of literature to make figures from fairy tales, poems, and classics. I also added a quotation to each figure as a way to tell a little bit about the personality or background. The characters were fun to make, but cumbersome to take to a show. Many scenes were large, they had fragile elements, and took up a lot of storage space. Still, I made my characters for about 5 years, and probably sold over 200 in that time. With the Characters I was juried into the Prairie Art Alliance (P.A.A.) as an artist member. [The picture at the top is one of my Characters--Noah designing the ark.] You can see other Character Creations at:
Many of the teachers I worked with were unsure about what to do with retirement. Several became substitute teachers and discovered the other side of the classroom. A few enjoyed having no preparation and walking out at the end of the day with no workload to carry home. Others were dismayed by the lack of respect and control they experienced. They left the substitute pool and tried other part-time jobs--in retail, in the library, or offices. Some taught in private schools. It was too difficult for them to imagine another life.
I planned on re-creating myself. I left school so far out of my mind that when I saw a school bus on the street late the next August, I was bemused. My mind had pushed it so far away that I (momentarily) wondered what I was seeing. That is a real mind-set change. So I managed to mentally erase my old life, but creating a new one was a challenge. I decided to become an artist. My problem was that I had no background in art--not even classes in high school or college. My lack of credentials in a credential-driven society is still a problem for me. I have been retired for 4 years, have had some success as an artist, but still can't use the word "artist" to describe myself. I am working on it.
People have always called me "creative." Over the years I had tried a variety of crafts--mostly sewing and embroidery with some ceramics thrown in. Since my daughters participated in local theater groups, I found myself making costumes for several productions. It was a small step to designing men's coats for women. Jan Jones and I started a business called "True Glitz" in 1990--nearly 15 years before retirement. We had fun taking men's jackets and adding different elements to make them into women's jackets. At first we only added lace, ribbons, jewelry, and rosettes. Then we became bolder, adding ties, gloves, epaulets, chains, and doilies. Our business became a local success. But after 5 years of decorating, we decided that we had done everything to a man's coat that we could think of doing and ended the Glitz business.
Jan was done with having a side business (we were still both teaching), but I needed to have a creative outlet. After searching for an idea I came up with "Character Creations --Little People of the Imagination." These were figures made of Sculpy which I sculpted and clothed. My early figures were simple and had bodies filled with sand. Then I added more elements and a background scene. I used my love of literature to make figures from fairy tales, poems, and classics. I also added a quotation to each figure as a way to tell a little bit about the personality or background. The characters were fun to make, but cumbersome to take to a show. Many scenes were large, they had fragile elements, and took up a lot of storage space. Still, I made my characters for about 5 years, and probably sold over 200 in that time. With the Characters I was juried into the Prairie Art Alliance (P.A.A.) as an artist member. [The picture at the top is one of my Characters--Noah designing the ark.] You can see other Character Creations at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/KatherinePippinPauley/CharacterCreations
During my last 4 years of teaching I did very little artistically or creatively, but I kept paying my dues at the P.A.A. each year so that I could work on artistic endeavors after retiring. The year that I retired, the Prairie Art Alliance moved into a beautiful new gallery at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. I volunteered to work at the desk in the gallery and met more of our artists. Little-by-little I moved into new artistic endeavors. I started taking art workshops. My most exciting endeavor during the first year of retirement was going to Sarasota to take a workshop with Maxine Masterfield. I had her books and loved her work. She opened up new ideas in experimental water media for me.
I kept trying new materials and techniques. I say that I am a jack-of-all-arts and master of none. However I love collage and I started working more with paper images. My first real success at the gallery was my creation of "A Woman's Alphabet" which was done on 26 6" x 6" canvases. I also love alphabet books and have a small collection, so creating a new alphabet was a natural idea for me. This piece took me 8 months to complete--mainly because I had to search for just the right image to illustrate each letter. The canvases had 3-D elements attached (a wooden nickel, a locket, a garter, etc.) and were bound with ribbon on which I had sewn the appropriate letter of the alphabet. I wanted to have cards made of the images, but our local printer said that they could not make images due to the 3-D attachments. So I decided to try. I scanned the canvases and started making cards. My "Woman's Alphabet" sold during the opening reception of the show, as did my first set of cards. It opened a new window for me. The (first) Woman's Alphabet can be seen at:
During my last 4 years of teaching I did very little artistically or creatively, but I kept paying my dues at the P.A.A. each year so that I could work on artistic endeavors after retiring. The year that I retired, the Prairie Art Alliance moved into a beautiful new gallery at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. I volunteered to work at the desk in the gallery and met more of our artists. Little-by-little I moved into new artistic endeavors. I started taking art workshops. My most exciting endeavor during the first year of retirement was going to Sarasota to take a workshop with Maxine Masterfield. I had her books and loved her work. She opened up new ideas in experimental water media for me.
I kept trying new materials and techniques. I say that I am a jack-of-all-arts and master of none. However I love collage and I started working more with paper images. My first real success at the gallery was my creation of "A Woman's Alphabet" which was done on 26 6" x 6" canvases. I also love alphabet books and have a small collection, so creating a new alphabet was a natural idea for me. This piece took me 8 months to complete--mainly because I had to search for just the right image to illustrate each letter. The canvases had 3-D elements attached (a wooden nickel, a locket, a garter, etc.) and were bound with ribbon on which I had sewn the appropriate letter of the alphabet. I wanted to have cards made of the images, but our local printer said that they could not make images due to the 3-D attachments. So I decided to try. I scanned the canvases and started making cards. My "Woman's Alphabet" sold during the opening reception of the show, as did my first set of cards. It opened a new window for me. The (first) Woman's Alphabet can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/KatherinePippinPauley/WomanSAlphabet
I have been continuing to create collages using vintage pictures combined with bright backgrounds. I decided to make a series that would have captions--as though they were in a family album. So a new line of cards was born "The Family Album." I look for old photos which have a element that I find humorous, and I write a quip for them. These cards have been successful and I now have over 200 different Family Album cards. My best sellers are the teacher cards.
I have been continuing to create collages using vintage pictures combined with bright backgrounds. I decided to make a series that would have captions--as though they were in a family album. So a new line of cards was born "The Family Album." I look for old photos which have a element that I find humorous, and I write a quip for them. These cards have been successful and I now have over 200 different Family Album cards. My best sellers are the teacher cards.
You can see some of my Family Album cards at:
