DUBOIS – Surrounded by pieces of her own artwork and a restoration, she had completed, Marianne Fyda explained her attraction to and career in art as the guest speaker for the 10th annual DuBois Area Historical Society luncheon.
“I found the gift of art,” declared Fyda in opening her presentation. “Art is a gift. The gift is what you are doing.”
Fyda traced her art interests back to the finely illustrated Little Golden Books she read as a child. “My parents provided opportunity,” she said.
“I will always treasure public schools. I had a good art teacher and the teaching of art is very important.”
Fyda graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., where she met her future husband, Gene. They moved to DuBois and established their own art-related business, The Peaceable Kingdom.
During the years of establishing the business and raising a family, Fyda drifted from her own artistic work until experiencing a mid-life crisis. “I needed to decide what I was gong to do with my life,” she said.
The answer was opening her own art studio on West Long Avenue in DuBois in 1988. She works on commission and offers classes for children and adults in drawing, watercolor, pastel and calligraphy.
“Requests make you go in a different direction,” she said about her commission work. One of those directions was restoration of old and damaged paintings.
Fyda learned the time intensive and tedious restoration process by watching her husband. A finished product was on display at the luncheon, a century old painting of city namesake John DuBois, which Fyda restored for the DuBois Area Historical Society.
Summing up Fyda said, “Why do we need art? Betty Edwards wrote in “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” that you work at art by doing it, learning how to understand what you are seeing, which is all about seeing positive and negative space.
“Math, geometry, and anatomy are all part of the art process. I encourage you to gift yourself with a little bit of art.”
Fifty-four members and guests attended the luncheon held at Christ Lutheran Church, DuBois. Society President Ruth Gregori presided over the ceremony. Todd Thompson gave the blessing before the lunch.
