Wiser With Age

Tag: teacher

  • NY artist says to make your life a masterpiece, listen to yourself

    NY artist says to make your life a masterpiece, listen to yourself


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Artist Carol Crawford (Photo/Carol Crawford)

    Carol Crawford, originally from Buffalo, NY, has been creating art ever since she can remember. She inherited her talent from her father – an artist and calligrapher.

    “I used to watch him work,†she says. “He did gorgeous lines. He handed me a bottle of India ink when I was seven and a sable brush. I never spilled anything.â€

    And that’s how it all began.

    Crawford has had a long art career consisting of documentary photography, filmmaking, printmaking, and theater set design. In 1995, she got a masters in interior design from Pratt Institute in NYC – where she has been teaching since 1999. Slightly before that, she also founded her own design firm, Carol Crawford Environments, which specializes in sustainable interior design. And on October 7, her latest exhibit, “Time Frames: Visual Metaphors for the Passage of Time†opens in New York.

    “All the work was done in 2014,†says Crawford about her latest exhibit which she completed while on medical leave from Pratt. “I had spinal surgery, and it took a long time to heal. I thought I would go out of my mind, so I decided to throw myself into studio work. I plunged in. It was an evolution from designs from my sketchbook.â€

    She says what she loves most about art is the ability to communicate and to invent.

    “What I like about it is telling stories,†says Crawford. “I’m looking always to break new ground. It’s mixed media, because I love to shift. I’ve used a lot of wood and plexiglass, and photography has always played a large part. I used to make a living as a documentary photographer – so the camera is an important tool.â€

    Whatever she has worked on throughout her life, she says, she has loved. And she also made sure to make time for everything that was important to her.

    “I’ve been teaching in universities and colleges from California to Maryland for the past 60 years…I love teaching very, very much, but I didn’t want to give up the idea of becoming a mother,†says the busy woman who now has four grown kids and five grandchildren. “…One of the things I had to fight for was to have children and a family – so it means a great deal.”

    Crawford says she wasn’t always so sure about what she wanted. One day her father asked her why she didn’t go to Pratt?

    “We were not rich,†she remembers. “I was always a scholarship student with a job. I thought, ‘How could I do that?’â€

    And then her mother asked her, “Wouldn’t you like to be a designer? You keep doing it for free?â€

    Crawford says she didn’t know how she could go back to school with four kids, and she recently realized it all happened. She had actually graduated from Pratt and is a designer and teacher.

    “Some of the best ideas I’ve ever had was using my brain with my feelings,†she says. “Some of the best artwork has come from that as well.â€

    If she had one piece of life advice that she would tell her younger self, it would be to be true to yourself, others and stick to your dream – even if you don’t know how you are going to make money.

    “If you haven’t already fallen in love with something…listen to yourself,†says Crawford. “If you are an honest observer to life around you, you’ll come up with something that is true to you. You will have success if you do that.â€

  • Tejano sculptor says he’s always ready for his next challenge

    Tejano sculptor says he’s always ready for his next challenge


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Armando Hinojosa (Photo/David Hinojosa)

    Armando Hinojosa is a proud Texan, born and raised in the southwestern city of Laredo. His family has inhabited the Lone Star State as early as 1755.

    He calls himself “a Tejano,†because his father came from Mexico and married his American mother, who was a direct descendant of the founder of Laredo, Don Tomas Sanchez. But perhaps what makes him even more proud, is the fact he dedicates each day to carrying on his late father’s work as an artist – and he does so with love and careful attention to the slightest detail.

    With more than 40 years of experience, the 70-year-old has sculpted bronze pieces for Sea World, Boy Scouts of America, as well as the largest monument at any state capitol in the nation – the 11-piece, life-size, Tejano monument in Austin. On September 6, his statue of Gil Steinke will be unveiled. He was the head football coach at A&I University for 22 years and the first to recruit Black and Hispanic players, according to Hinojosa.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Hinojosa working on the Tejano Monument. (Photo/David Hinojosa)

    “I love all my projects, and I put my whole heart in each one, but the one that has given me the most respect is the Tejano Monument,†he says. “Three-fourths of the Tejano Monument is made up of Hispanics…We were here before any Anglos were here. We’ve been here for 500 years.â€

    The energetic Tejano says every project he receives is a new challenge for him. Although, he loves every piece he works on and puts his full attention on each one, he never dwells on the past once he’s done.

    “I gotta move on,†he says. “I gotta work for the future now. I’m ready for something new.”

    Hinojosa excitedly mentions the Cotulla Convention Center in South Texas has already booked him to make a life-size sculpture of the city’s founder, Joseph Cotulla.

    “I do everything in clay,†says the busy sculptor. “You can buy it green, grey, or brown. Then I send it to the foundry where they make a mold…a five foot statue will cost about $30,000 and three months to make, but it’ll last forever.â€

    He explains it took him 12 years to finish the Tejano Monument, because it took that long to raise the funds.

    Ever since graduating college, teaching had been Hinojosa’s primary source of income.

    “I married my wife, and we had three kids,†remembers Hinojosa, stating fondly that his wife was an award-winning teacher. “I was a teacher seven or eight years, then I started in the arts.”

    After opening up his own gallery and running it for about five years,  he says he went back to teaching another 10 years, at the end of which he was hired as Dean of Art for a new arts high school in Laredo.

    “I was there for 20 years. I would get up at six in the morning, work in my studio till eight, then go to school,†recounts Hinojosa. “I was never lazy. I was doing both, but when I got the Tejano Monument, I quit and I’ve been doing art since.â€

    These days he spends his days sculpting, and his nights painting cowboy or Mexican themes, with either watercolors or oils. He says he is often reminded of when he first started his career with his dad.

    “He would paint billboards,†says Hinojosa. “My dad would draw the letters, and I would paint the inside….Then I went to high school. While other people had jobs in stores, I was helping my dad paint the signs outside.â€

    He says his talented dad is still known throughout Laredo by his first name, Geronimo. Years ago, he had been hired to do props for Hollywood, but he didn’t go, because he didn’t know English. Geronimo only had a sixth grade education, but Hinojosa is very grateful for the invaluable lessons he passed down to him.

    “Have a dream and stick to it,†Hinojosa says is one of those lessons. “You have to pay your dues. You have to keep at it. When I first started, I didn’t paint or sculpt like I do now. I was born with it, but I also learned from my dad.â€

  • Bodybuilder and life coach says, “Spend time with yourself”

    Bodybuilder and life coach says, “Spend time with yourself”


     

     

    A woman with her arms raised in the air.
    Dr. Josefina Monasterio, bodybuilder and life coach (Courtesy Dr. Josefina Monasterio)

    Dr. Josefina Monasterio spent her childhood climbing mango trees in her rural hometown, Punta de Mata, in western Venezuela. She says she was always athletic – competing in track and field and as a gymnast through college. At 68, however, she has far from slowed down. Monasterio is an award-winning bodybuilder and life coach.

    “I started bodybuilding at 59, and now I compete with women in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, and I beat them,†says Monasterio laughing in her vivacious manner. “They take pictures with me!â€

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  • Summer camp owner reveals her secret to youth

    Summer camp owner reveals her secret to youth


    A woman with white hair and wearing a purple shirt.
    Nancy Goldberg, owner and director of Belvoir Terrace (Courtesy Nancy Goldberg)

    Nancy Goldberg is 78, and she says she feels in better shape now than she did at 50.

    What is her secret?

    Working outdoors and teaching kids, says the owner and director of Belvoir Terrace – a sports and performing arts summer camp for girls in Lenox, Massachusetts. She also runs or swims, for 30 minutes, six days a week, and follows a vegan diet.

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