Euclid Art Association’s January Members’ Night - Show and Tell

View Image Gallery

Every year in January, Euclid Art Association features several members for an evening of ‘Show & Tell’.  On this cold, snowy day in January (but the roads were clear) we had close to 30 members and guests who came to hear William Kless, Barbara Greenwood and Diane Rogazione, tells us about their artwork.  While waiting for the meeting to start, members were entertained by a slideshow of pictures from our Christmas Party at the beautiful Henn Mansion.

Our first presenter, William Kless, had lots of interesting stories to tell (including about Viet Nam) and amazing graphic artworks to show us.  William joined Euclid Art in 2017.  He travels to our monthly meetings from Aurora, OH.  He has a very successful and distinguished career as a graphic artist and teacher.  William says that he does things that he likes....like preserving Cleveland memories.  How many of you remember going to Euclid Beach as a kid?  His posters of Euclid Beach Park and Laughing Sal bring back those memories.  William also did posters commemorating the Shaker Rapid, Chippewa Lake, Cedar Point and Lake Erie Island.  And, if you are a train enthusiast, you’ll enjoy his  amazing train prints.  William’s interest in art started at a young age, around 10 years old.  His first painting was a landscape using powdered tempera paints on card board, which he still has and brought to show us.  It’s amazing at that young age how he was able to capture the light!  In 1967, he was drafted out of college for Viet Nam.  The army was looking for an artist to make a Fort Knox welcome sign.  William said “Yes, Sir!  I can do that.”  He flunked out of radio school....too visual....and became an artist celebrity, painting 7 murals, getting paid and only ever painting one tank!  After the army, he went to Tri-C for art, followed by seven job offers.  He accepted a job at an ad agency but soon changed direction.  He went back to school at Kent State for vocational art education.  He became the first certified and qualified commercial artist in the State of Ohio.  He taught and developed curriculum for vocational art at Tri-C, even hiring artist, Bob Moyer, as a teacher.  He’s been told that he has the “best hand skills” in the county.....and after seeing his art, I think you will agree.

Barbara Greenwood, an art therapist, was our second presenter.  She joined Euclid Art in 2017.  Barb has an undergraduate degree in art and taught art for 12 years.  She was also an illustrator for a long time.  Then, she obtained her masters in art therapy from Ursuline College.  She uses a mixed bag of techniques...collage, mix media, watercolor...in her art work.  She calls her unique technique “A Scribble a Day Keeps the Doctor Away”.  In October, 30 pieces of her artwork hung at the Euclid Public Library for the month and at her reception, 15 pieces sold!  Instead of talking about her art, she did a demonstration of her scribble technique.  Asking for a volunteer from the audience, Emma, our youngest member, volunteered.  Barb gave her a green crayon and asked her to scribble something on the white bristol board, anything, all over the paper and stop when it felt done.  “You can’t make a mistake”, she said to Emma.  Then, she asked “what do you see?”  The audience responded...bird, treble clef, swan, aliens, preying mantis.  Barb rotated the paper and asked again...”what do you see?” and again.  Emma responded “a dog”.  “This is where your story begins,” Barb says.  Barb pulled the dog image from the scribble and then handed Emma, the Cray-Pas, an oil pastel drawing medium, and asked her to start coloring.  Tip from member Suzette Cohen:  use baby oil instead of turpentine to dilute and move the medium.  Better for your skin.  Another tip:  if you’re faced with a blank page, just scribble something!  Tap into you inner creativity.

Our third presenter for the evening, Diane Rogazione, also joined Euclid Art in 2017.  Diane said she does a little of everything.  Not only in art, but in life as well.  She has an art degree from a Christian college in Missouri.  Then, she went on to teach (not art however) grades 1 through 4 in California for 7 years without an elementary teaching degree.  Later, she earned her teaching degree at Cleveland State University and went on to teach 24 more years at Richmond Heights Christian School.  She even did missionary work in Ecuador and Guatemala.  We know that Diane is an amazing watercolor artist.  She took lessons from Layne Kendig.  Her watercolor, Ohio Winter, won honorable mention at our Lakeland show this past summer...and it sold!  Like she said, she does a little of everything from painting large murals...an ocean scene with mermaid on the side of a garage....to doing pet portraits on commission.  She also gets commissions to paint portraits of people as a memory of their loved ones.  She said “I do art to enhance other people’s lives”.  Because of her love of picture books, Diane started illustrating children’s books.  She shared several books with us.  Of special interest was her illustration of Buzz Aldrin on the moon, for a book that never got published.  Diane asked us “Did we know what the first food and drink consumed on the moon was?  Holy Communion!”  That’s an interesting story.....so we asked Diane for more and here’s what she shared with us:

“To prove that the first liquid and food consumed on the moon was holy communion (but it was hushed up because of fear of backlash) type in Buzz Aldrin holy communion or Buzz Aldrin Wikipedia.  On Buzz Aldrin holy communion there is a film clip that shows an actor portraying him doing it.  Just think about the beauty of God's amazing universe and how overwhelmed he must have been looking out the window seeing a black sky full of blinking stars.  The Earth was a blue marble off in the distance.  It is no wonder to me he felt compelled to honor His Creator.  So glad he had the courage to do it.  So sorry my friend decided not to publish the picture book the illustration was for.  It was in ABC format and told of many little-known contributions Christians have made to society.  For example, did you know Margaret Hamilton was once a Sunday School teacher at a church in Cleveland Hts. in her younger years before becoming the Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz?”

It was getting late and we had to put the lights on so everyone could make their way to the refreshment table.  As a result, Lee Peters’ video presentation that he made in 2008 featuring EAA members artwork from the previous five years, got lost on the screen.  We’ll just save Lee’s presentation for another time....you’ll enjoy seeing it again ‘in the dark’.

The theme for the evening’s refreshments was appropriately titled “Let It Snow”.  It felt like an après-ski buffet with so many delicious treats.....slider sandwiches, hot taco chili dip & chips, pigs in a blanket, fruit and veggies, brownies, cookies and much, much more!  We thank our hosts for the evening, Terese, Ginny, and Juanita....great job party team!