Gretchen Fuss - Artist
So the beginnings of my art career started when I was
in preschool.  I was painting oil paintings with my
mother.  I still have that painting.
It's Raggedy Ann sitting with toys around her, but
it was pretty good for a four-year-old.  From there that's
who I was.  There was never any question in my mind
of what I wanted to be or who I was. 
When I went to college, I wanted to be a fine artist.
I wanted to be a painter, but with the advice of, and I
know that we all got this, with the advice of many who
loved me...
they said do something where you can make a
living.  Be a graphic designer.  Be something that
you can get a steady paycheck.  Worked as a creative
director for a greeting card company
I did graphic design, advertising, product design.  Each
time it was just kinda like this building of information
and building of knowledge and more desire and more
passion to go towards painting.

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Robert Bohné - Artist
Well when I was about ten years old, my grandmother
had cancer and she lived in Roxborough with my
grandfather.
And I adored my grandfather.  He was terrific and
my parents started to send my up there  to spend
time with my grandfather to keep him company
while my grandmother was hospitalized.
And they had no toys, but my grandfather had
some antiques that he had collected and family
heirlooms...
and they had one painting.  So to occupy my time
I started drawing.  Started getting into still lifes
and then my parents recognized a degree of
talent...
so they had me take lessons from a woman
down the street.  That's how I got started and then
it, I think it was 1963, they took me to an exhibit... 
at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts of
Andrew Wyeth.  His first major exhibit there
and that was it.  That sealed it for me.
I knew what I wanted to do.
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Fred Danziger - Artist
When I was a little boy, even before kindergarten,
my mother would give me crayons and she would
always say, ask me, draw me an elephant.
Draw me a clown and I would sit there with my
crayons on the floor and you know, and I would do
something and she was oh Freddy that is just wonderful
I love it, you know and let's have some milk and cookies.
You know, so we would go into the kitchen and I
would have some milk and cookies and it was like,
what's not to like about, you do art and someone
gives you milk and cookies, you know. 
That's really, I think everything is an outgrowth of my
mother sort of inculcating that idea either consciously
or unconsciously in me that you can do this, 
you know, and nice things happen when you do art.
So I moved to Philadelphia and I studied at the
Academy, you know, the way it progressed I, I got
a job driving a taxi when I graduated.
But eventually I got into a little bit of teaching
and that kept enough money coming in that I
could, you know, Lil was working as a graphic
artist, so we managed to do ok. 
This was the life I was meant to lead,
so that's how it happened. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Sarah Baptist - Artist
My father is an Art History professor, so I grew
up with art.
My mother was also a very creative person.  She
sewed.  She made cards at Valentine's Day, so
creativity in our home was always appreciated. 
If I did a drawing it was on the refrigerator and
celebrated.  I never thought it would be my life.  I
always thought I would appreciate it...
go to museums wherever, but as I got older and
did some other, you know, didn't have that in my
life I always went back to it.
In my early 30's, I kinda knew I wanted to paint and
draw and so I just started doing it part-time...
on my own and I loved it.  I just, I think it's just
part of my DNA and I feel at home there.

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Alicia Asselta - Artist
I pretty much always enjoyed drawing and coloring
from a very early age...
and I was fortunate to grow up in a house where
my parents were extremely supportive of the arts
and music and they encouraged it.
They loved, they loved encouraging my imagination
and I think it wasn't until I went to high school and
I had an amazing art teacher and joined art club...
and has this great opportunity to go to Europe when I
was, when I was in high school and that's really when
I got bit by the bug when I was there. 
I remember going to the Moulin Rouge and seeing
Toulouse-Lautrec and going to the Lourve and it
was just an amazing experience.
Like that's when I really realized that this
something that I wanted to do, but after school,
you know, I went to college... 
and or after I graduated I realized that fine art is
going to be something that's going to be difficult
to make a living in... 
so I went into graphic design and advertising for
a few years then had children and then took a
little bit of a hiatus and then decided I wanted to
get back into it. 

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Josephine Winsor - Artist
I have literally painted my entire life or used
crayons or drawn or painted, but I didn't end up
going to art school...  
or studying art until I was 38 and I have never felt
as though I am satisfied, number 1, that I ever am at
a place where I know enough and so I experiment
constantly...  
and it's always been there in my life.  I'm an artist.
I think like an artist.  I act like an artist.  An artist, per se,
they dance, they sing, they understand poetry, they
understand the whole creative field.
and that's who I am and I can't imagine not doing it.
I will always do it. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Liz Delany - Artist
Well, you become a recovering accountant which
is what I am.  I loved art as a child and I was not able
to pursue a career in art. 
I went back to school took some art courses and
painting courses and now that I'm semi-retired,
I am just painting like crazy. 
As a painter, I feel totally fulfilled.  I feel good
every day.  I love coming into my studio to paint.
I love the smell of the oil paint and linseed oil... 
much more so than the point of a pencil and
it's just, it's very fulfilling. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Elise Phillips - Artist
I was always surrounded by art in our home and
businesses and I just was the kid that just sat
around and drew.
Mom buy me coloring books, whatever, I had
a little table set up in the den and I would just
color and draw all the time.
It was just in me.  It's just something that, I
don't know, just you have to do it and I
had to do it. 
Luckily, I majored in art all through high school
and then went on to art school in Philadelphia.
Hussian School of Art.
Luckily, I had the sense to think I should probably
have a job before I start painting, so I went for
commericial art... 
and worked that for a while but my true passion,
of course, was always painting which is probably
every illustrators and commericial artists, 
you know, true love.
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Ken Karlic - Artist
I guess I realized I liked art... I don't remember doing
anything other than drawing even when I was a
little kid.
I studied architecture in high school thinking I
was gonna be an architect.  Went into architecture
in college... 
but then I realized after a year and a half, I just
like drawing architecture.  So I shifted into painting
went into graphic design and at the end of the day
had a 30 year career in graphic design.
Continued to paint and draw until all of a sudden
the drawing and the painting started catching up
with each other. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Lele Galer - Artist Oh gosh, I don't know I grew up in an art history type family and I had a nice education and really great art teachers... and I've been going to museums since I was about 2 and so it was mostly through an art history way for me that I love art. I was happy to have some talent, but I always wanted to do something else first. I like writing. I like traveling. There are a lot of things on my list before art... and so I did a lot of those things and then I had children too and I found myself involved in education and development, raising money for nonprofits... and the art thing started to come in more and more as my kids were older because I started to do mural programs, art history programs in the schools... and that gave me a lot of joy and I loved working with kids of all ages. It was so much fun. And then at some point as they were entering college... and leaving high school I thought, well why not. I should probably kinda dig in and remember what I was interested in this in the first place and so... I took a couple classes and it came back pretty quickly and I was also running a bunch of art shows and on different art boards and so on. And I had a blast doing it. I loved the painting. It's a little painful sometimes bringing that painting out, but as long as it's fun, you know, I'm gonna keep doing it. Gallery 222 Malvern 2 Enlighten - 2 Enjoy - 2 Experience www.gallery222malvern.com

Nathan Durnin - Artist My mom's an artist, so it started pretty early on. I remember as a kid I used to play with those Prang Watercolor sets, you know, in the little box. And my parents would be listening to classical music in the other room and I'd try to like paint along with the music and try to match it. As I got older, I kinda switched back and forth between art and other things. And I got kinda a renewed love for it in my old teacher, Michael Doyle's class... at The Wayne Art Center. You know, I was actually ready to kinda give up on art, but I.... the first painting I did in that class was like a lightbulb... went off. So it started out pretty early on and then it really took off when I was about 16, 17 and I just haven't stopped since. Gallery 222 Malvern 2 Enlighten - 2 Enjoy - 2 Experience www.gallery222malvern.com

Sue Ciccone - Artist
I've always loved art and I've always drawn
mostly people and animals as well with pencil.

But I didn't really... and I did all forms of art, art
related things, design things all my life.  That

wasn't really my focus. 

It was always just something I loved to do on
the side and then in my 40's I just, kinda funny,
I started picking out these old windows...

accumulated hundreds of these things and
then I started painting on them and I started
doing beach scenes.

And then I thought... well I really wanna like,
I want to explore my painting more.  This is
more crafty art.

I really wanna, I want to learn fine art.  I want
to be better and so I started taking classes.  And
first thing I painted ever... 

on a canvas was this ginormous mermaid.  And
she's underwater and it's very dramatic.  Her
hair's flowing.  

That was my first painting and I sold it at
gallery down in Ocean City.
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Joseph Sweeney - Artist
I could always draw in high school, you know.
That was one of those things... 

that we would do when we were waiting for
something to happen and people would hand
me their book and say... 

hey draw my corvette in here, you know, 
I would draw them something in the back of
their book and basically that's where that started.

And then, I was in the Navy for two years and
I would draw things for people on the ship and
then I thought, you know I kinda like this...

so let me see what happens after the Navy.
I went the total opposite direction into the art.
Which was like... 

going from a battle to Fantasy Island.  Instead
of going through traumatic stress disorder,
I went to art school.  

When I went to the Navy, I signed my life away
for two years and I swore that I would never
do that again.

So, I wanted to be totally free.  So, for the last
forty years I've been a painter.  I haven't worked
for anyone else... 

other than teaching at universities,
but I'm not working for them, 
I'm working with them. 

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Luba M. Caruso - Artist
My grandmother, well you know, she...
she had a tough life.
They escaped the war in Ukraine.  Came to
the United States and finally made it to
her cute little house... 
with a picket fence and the wraparound porch
and she'd sit there and would paint her oils.
She was an amazing artist.
And so she would teach me since I was
very little.  Mixing the oils you know and
making the composition.
And I would always say... Gosh why are you
painting flowers like how boring.  Don't you
want to paint the sea you know?
She's like... Oh no, there's beauty in
everything.  Paint a flower.  And I really
never really did until recently...
since I moved here, I started with the
florals, so that's a great inspiration to me
and my mother always painted flowers. 
Whether my mother didn't paint so much with
me, but she taught me so much other things
in art cuz she's an amazing artist.
And my grandmother with her actual physical
painting you know...
it came together. 
And then I was at Villanova for tennis, my
father saw my artwork when I went to London
for the summer...
And he told me... he's like... Oh my God you
know, you've got to paint.  I was supposed to... 
I was going into medicine.
He's like you're not going to be a doctor
like the rest of our family, you're going to
paint...  
and he sent me to Parsons and I
studied more and... and it's been
a love affair ever since. 
You know I... I have to constantly draw or
paint something every day. Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Kristi Gilfillan - Artist
Always loved art... my mom was an artist.  My
grandmother on the other side was an artist.
And from when I was a little girl, I was always
drawing, painting.  My mom and my
grandmother both used to be in an art group... 
and I actually would always feign sickness
those days from school so I could go
paint with them. 
And I... just.. I mean my favorite Christmas
gift was almost every other year was like
a new box of colored pencils... 
and that's what I looked forward to.  So in my
free time I was always drawing and painting.
And it's carried through you know through life.
It wasn't... recently... more recently I got to
become more serious with it and start doing
these oil paintings, but I've always loved it.

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

Jan Wier - Artist
I worked in art as a child mostly, 
some as a teen...
and then I kinda left it and went and did
a business degree.  And then I found my
way back into a creative field...
interior design, which is a business and
an art all in one.  And then in the past
3 years, I've started taking classes again... 
spending time at home painting and
really getting back into this very first love
that I had.

Paula Sargent Mintzer - Artist
I first fell in love with art probably when I was... 
first could pick up a pencil or a crayon.

I spent time painting and drawing and
cutting paper and I always wanted to
go to school for art.

I was an art minor.  Painted realism and
representational work, which came
easy to me.

I could do the shading on an object and
it's just came easy to me. 

But the real challenge was when I started
doing abstract work, because that all
comes from within.

Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

I didn't start doing art when I was younger, but I was very interesting and I was very interested in looking images, looking at sculptures and statues and wondering about how they would be.  About three months into my job after college, I was sitting at my desk thinking, I don't think I can do this for the rest of my life.  It feels so natural to come into this as a profession now that I've had the schooling, now that I've had the training and to have the freedom to pursue it during the day and have it be what it is that I make, what it is that out in the world and its very comfortable now. 

I always loved art.  I took private art lessons starting from the time I was eight until like all the way through high school.  But it was kind of like a creative outlet for me something that I did that was just completely relaxing and enjoyable.   And all through childhood I was really interested in science like

that was the career path that I wanted to go in was science and in particular chemistry.  My senior year of high school,  in April of my senior year, I realized that I could give up science and be okay with it.  I couldn't give up doing art every day and be okay with that.  So that's how I ended up deciding to go to art school.  And I think printmaking for me is that kind of like a happy medium because there is everything that I do has a little bit of a scientific element to it.  There's like you're making experiments, you have limiting variables, but at the same time it's completely creative and there's no right answer.

I always, always drew.  So that I got a scholarship that high school for art.  I did my first, I was also an athlete and went to University of Delaware, my first year blew my ankle out about the third day of hockey camp.  So,I  transferred on the Rhode Island School of Design, knowing that into the sports as well.  And I did get a degree in painting.   And you get out of art school and have a bachelor of fine arts in painting  and I fell back on life my, my history.  Following my grandfather around the building and I went into building.   I wound up staying here years in that trade.  I went to that art show that was it.  It was like it was just an instant change.  

I grew up in the southwest and we lived in the middle of nowhere between El Paso Texas and Carlsbad New Mexico.  The love it was actually displacing other things.  The drawing made up for the lack of having a girlfriend, being able to drive a diesel, being able to fly a jet, being able to do a lot of things.  So a lot of those things that I didn't have the bravery to do I would draw them and it felt like I was doing them. So art kind of slip through the back door, was something that became concrete, I think mostly in high school.  But I'd loved it prior to that, it is very subliminal.  But it was after I left high school or I told myself I'm still drawn after a year I’m going to continue to do it.   I moved out of my house to Albuquerque New Mexico for the sake of drawing the real human being.  Once I began to mix with a lot of other artists that were actually doing it in a much larger city, a little bit more liberal city, I saw that I was able to.. that I had it.  That year span I knew that I could do it but I don't know how the hell I was going to go about making it happen.  Accident, a lot of probably hopeless optimism about even maybe ignorance but just trying to make each drawing better and better and I would probably say having the Masters cast a big shadow over me that I felt warm under that helped me grow.

Mark Fleming - Artist
I guess.. I guess I'm like like a visual hands on learner.  It's just like... if I see you do something it's just like ok I can just do... I understand it, I can do it. It kinda like runs in my family too...
my dad, my brother, my grandfather, my uncle, my aunts... like... everyone on my dad's side of the family just super talented at either sewing or building, painting like... knitting... like you name it... drawing pictures of like the coolest stuff ever and it's just like... so, I got exposed to it... at an early age and I just... it kinda like blew me away and I was just like... ok well... let me just give it a go and then...there was just no stopping me.
 

Nancy Bea Miller - Artist
Like most artists, I always loved art and
I grew with a pencil or crayon in my hand.
That's like... my first memories are of
drawing and painting.  So, it was just part
of my life.
And my parents had art supplies and
art books and art magazines all over
the place.
It was just part of my natural
environment.  I did well in school so,
I was able to go to an... 
Ivy League University and they were just
like... do not waste your time being an
artist.  
You can be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist.
Do something like that and I was like... 
Ok... 
So, I went to Penn and I just couldn't do
any of that other stuff... you know... 
it just kinda has to come out.

Gallery 222 Malvern
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I think started at a young age.  I have a lot of memories and kindergarten of my drawing is always being a lot more complicated than other kids.  And my parents framing a lot of things and they have this like weird, weird book thing at Sugar Town Elementary School where you got to illustrate your own book.  And so, I remember doing that even at a really young age.  But it’s always have been there but always hasn’t been at the forefront of my life.  I did the neuroscience track for a while and I thought that was what I wanted to do.  And I graduated and I kind of had this epiphany when I was shadowing a bunch of nurses and doctors that Paoli Hospital and realized that what I wanted was kind of this like romantic notion of being a doctor and that wasn't really, that wasn't really me. So I'd always done the art on the side and was something that always interested me and after that kind of epiphany that I had, I'd decided to go to Italy to study art for about a semester right after school was over.   And that was kind of the eye-opening experience for me where I wasn't really stressed about what I was studying.   I enjoyed every subject that I was learning and it was this aha moment that maybe this was more me than what I was doing before.

I've always like going out into the stream and found all the different colored rocks and then painted on the other rocks with them and try to find the largest selection of colors.  I remember doing that when I was five years old. Playing in the stream and trying to find all the rocks all different colors, so I've always drawn.  I've always been drawn to nature and I never had trouble being outside alone even when I was younger.  I would walk as far as I could before I got scared and had to turn around.  I've always loved the idea that the nature you can feel like, even was ten years old I could feel that it's connected to this like deep history and connected to so many other things that I did not like have like an interpersonal relationship with but I wanted to.  As I grew older my drawings & paintings became more specific and my parents are great and brought me to museums and I was able to look at artist throughout history and I started to try and go outside and draw my own both real landscapes and imaginary ones because I was always drawn to like fantasy worlds and books.  And then as I grew older I found that I really enjoyed spending time in the woods and sitting there and waiting for,  you know the squirrels to forget you were there and start walking in front.
Gallery 222 Malvern
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Ken Karlic - Artist
I guess I realized I liked art... I don't remember doing
anything other than drawing even when I was a
little kid.
I studied architecture in high school thinking I
was gonna be an architect.  Went into architecture
in college... 
but then I realized after a year and a half, I just
like drawing architecture.  So I shifted into painting
went into graphic design and at the end of the day
had a 30 year career in graphic design.
Continued to paint and draw until all of a sudden
the drawing and the painting started catching up
with each other. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
2 Enlighten - 2 Enjoy - 2 Experience
www.gallery222malvern.com

Ken Karlic - Artist
I guess I realized I liked art... I don't remember doing
anything other than drawing even when I was a
little kid.
I studied architecture in high school thinking I
was gonna be an architect.  Went into architecture
in college... 
but then I realized after a year and a half, I just
like drawing architecture.  So I shifted into painting
went into graphic design and at the end of the day
had a 30 year career in graphic design.
Continued to paint and draw until all of a sudden
the drawing and the painting started catching up
with each other. 
Gallery 222 Malvern
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www.gallery222malvern.com

ean Uhl Spicer - Artist

When I was in grammar school, I loved to paint.

I was always drawing. When I would come home I

would copy the funny papers...

and all kinds of things. I loved to draw and as it

developed into something further when I got

into high school, it still took me, I didn't choose it,

it chose me.

And I just went from there, I loved the whole thing

and that led me to art school. It's the University of

the Arts now. And, so I've always been art minded

and my father, his family had some art in it.

And he was also an engineer, electrical engineer, so

therefore he drew plans and things all the time.

So whether that was a part of me, I assume, but

drawing and painting was always with me.

Gallery 222 Malvern

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www.gallery222malvern.com

Denise Vitollo - Artist

Well I always loved art. I always created art.

I always had a very vivid imagination and

after high school I got a BFA in printmaking.

After that I studied art education. Master's degree

in art education and I mean I don't remember

any time in my life when it wasn't a part of my life.

I mean it's not like...

one day I discovered, oh I can do this like I always

could do it and I always loved to do it.

Gallery 222 Malvern

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www.gallery222malvern.com