It Is Good To Love Many Things
The Monroe Art League Angie Terrasi Archives are finally here!
Gooooooooooooooood Morning Readers of This Blog!
I've never been a morning person.
But thanks to some new medication, I find myself waking up early everyday (and I hate it).
The only downside to this is that I'm also still a night owl, so like.
I just work off the same amount of sleep I got in college 10 years ago (that's 3-5 hours) and somehow manage to get myself through the day without crashing for a "when did I fall asleep?" nap.
It's annoying.
I don't trust morning people and their "productivity," yet here I am, 8am on a Sunday, typing up this blog. Being all productive.
It's disgusting.
Anyway, I digress. Let's move on to the heart of this blog post--our new archives and the demonstrator for this month, David Larkins!
First and foremost, I'd like to give a giant Thank You to all the League staff that worked meticulously to make sure these archives were filed accordingly, names were attached to pictures, and that the history and legacy of the League was preserved for future generations: Gladys Drummonds, Heather Lotter, Sherry Sutherland, Rosalie Pasko, and Anne Marie Pederson.
After that, let's get into Angie Terrasi, for whom this collection is named after!
Featured in this painting by Fran, Angie lived--from what I heard--an incredible life.
We were lucky enough to have Angie's family come out to the Grand-Opening of sorts of the Angie Terrasi Archives (ATA), where her granddaughter Ava read to us Angie's biography:
Angie was born in Detroit and lived there until she was three, when her mother sadly passed. Her father then sent her back to Laggio, Italy to be raised by her grandparents. She, along with her younger sister, stayed there until just before WWII broke out. At a time where many children were being sent out of the various countries surrounding the heart of the war, she and her sister, both young teenagers, left the Alps of Italy.
Unable to board the train at the station because they lacked an adult, a German woman saw them and quickly told the conductors that they were with her. They made it out thanks to her, and from there, met their father in NYC to head to back to Michigan.
The sisters then had to learn English from the day to day, as during the war, they got factory jobs alongside their schooling. Eventually, Angie married Angelo Terrasi in June of 1946 and were married for 40 years until his death in 1986. They had five daughters: Joann, Judy, Denise, Jayne, Doreen, and one son--Richard--who sadly passed away in 2010 as well as an abundance of grandchildren (including Ava, who kindly and wonderfully told us all about her grandmother's life at the meeting Saturday) and great-grandchildren.
Angie's life doesn't just stop there, however. Like all of us, she had her interests and hobbies, and was, suffice to say, a powerhouse when it came to delegating her time. She was active in many places of artistic value around Monroe County, MI, St. Anne's Church, Monroe and Frenchtown Senior Centers, and Comboni Missions Auxiliary. She also took classes at MCCC as well as ones offered by the Art League.
She was a well known accomplished artist in and around the Monroe area, a matriarch of her large family, and touched the hearts and souls of all who knew her, purchased her work, and proudly display it for all to see.
Honestly, I'm in awe of her life's work and accomplishments, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was just a little bit envious of her organizational skills (my poor motivation usually quits on me half way through, because it doesn't see the fun in it. Which is horrible. ... I still enjoy watching all those cleaning and organizing videos though!)
Those skills are why we are naming the archives after her--and after personally seeing and handling her work myself, I say it's well deserved. An extra blessing on her memory for the photo albums--they made everything easier for me to work with and set things up.
A huge Thank You to all of Angie's family that came out to the grand opening of the ATA--I'm sure you're all just as proud as she would be of you!
In addition to the grand opening of the ATA, our special demonstrator this month was David Larkins, who painted his rendition of Van Gogh's Sunflowers live for us--while talking about Vincent's life and how he takes on the impressionistic technique.
David, a member once when he was 15, and then again just recently, spent roughly an hour and a half painting, talking, and answering questions.
I managed to snag a short video this time, so here's a 46 second clip of one of the fun facts about Van Gogh David taught us:
The MAL had over 80 people in attendance for this demonstration, and even held a raffle for the painting that David was doing that well exceeded expectations and will help out the League greatly with future projects!
All in all, this past Saturday was a smashing success!
A big THANK YOU to everyone that came out, helped set up, donated easels, and worked on getting this whole thing together.
And a special shout out to these two ladies, who made it all possible in the first place!
"But wait," I can hear you say. "You said that David was raffling off his painting at the end of the demonstration!"
...I did? I guess I did? I usually don't go back and reread for edits until I'm done writing everything, so I'll take your word for it.
Anyway, yes.
After much anticipation and last minute ticket buying, the head of the Reference department, Lou, came down and pulled out the lucky ticket. Number 6939623.
Which just happened to be Angie's oldest daughter, JoAnn.
If that's not divine interference, I don't know what is!
As they say, all's well that ends well, and aside from me being sleepy, I'd say this is a good place to end this week's blog post.
Look for another one coming at you soon!
For now, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :)
