President’s Closing Message 2018-2019

I joined UWS the year Nancy Lund was president in 2003. I thought you had to be a good artist to join, or I would have joined sooner! Art is important to me by itself, but through my years in the watercolor society, I have found that the experiences and friendships though art are maybe even more meaningful to me.

For instance, Past President, Maura Naughton, used to volunteer to be our travel guide to Western Fed each year http://wfws.org/.  With the Utah Watercolor Society, I have gone to San Diego, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tucson, and Denver. Traveling with your family is great.  Travel with other artists is a unique experience.  I remember my first trip to Denver with UWS on a greyhound-type bus. One artist would remark, “Oh my gosh, the clouds are awesome right now.”  And everyone would jump out of their seats, run to the other side of the bus to look at and take photos of these beautiful clouds.  That doesn’t happen with your family.  They would say, “clouds, ya, sure they are great mom.” They don’t have that same appreciation. As artists, we have enthusiasm for common interests. Artists seek art museums and galleries. With family we often have to convince them to go in and then they race through it as fast as possible.

Over the years I have experienced workshops where I have met and learned from national artists.  Furthermore, very wonderful class members always made it such a pleasant experience. I have been impressed that each time, every class member generously contributed to the class in some way. As V.P, I experienced the highlight of spending extra time with the likes of international artists like the amazing Keiko Tanabe https://ktanabefineart.com/.

Our paint outs have taken me to locations I never knew existed.  The core group of regular attendees with lunch following make for a really fun Saturday. And for the past few years, Arts and the Park in Capitol Reef National Park, although a big stretch of my abilities, was another experience I would not have had if it weren’t for Maura Naughton and our organization. https://www.entradainstitute.org/

Through art, I have met some awesome people and great artists. Some have moved; some have passed away.  Some, like the lady who, when she was a baby, was the model for Disney’s Tinkerbell, I will never forget even though I only met them once and will probably never see them again.

Through the years I have been blessed to work on the board for 6 years, where I have gotten to know and learn from beautiful volunteers.  Artists are such delightful people. Volunteers are exceptionally marvelous to associate with.

I certainly have never regretted joining the Utah Watercolor Society. And with such a dependable and knowledgeable board, being president was much easier than I expected. I highly recommend it!