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MotherAnteater Arts - Who is MotherAnteater and WHAT is she doing????PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases in ebay fees that I don't wish to pass on to my customers, and other policy changes, I have decided to close my ebay store, the online MotherAnteater Arts. MY AUCTIONS WILL CONTINUE AS ALWAYS. For information regarding my custom paintings of your pet on canvas, purses, or other items, OR for info about the artwork of community artist Jane Gerus, please email me at:
motheranteater@yahoo.com
Who is MotherAnteater........?
THE REAL MOTHERANTEATER SHINGLE IN CHISHOLM, MN
Who is MotherAnteater........?
The artist, Cora Culbert, of MotherAnteater Arts, was raised in Chicago by artist parents who were also dog lovers. Hence, memorable quality time was spent at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the annual International Dog Show, during the artist's impressionable, formative years. The artist's father also worked briefly in advertising for the magazine "Dog World". He would bring home copies of the magazine, and his fledgling artist daughter would compulsively render detailed charcoal drawings from the abundant canine photos within. Her first monetary art award was for a collie drawing, published in the Chicago Daily News at age twelve. Continuing artistically precocious into her teens, she placed third in a city-wide competition for a scholarship to the Art Institute in the late sixties, but being the sixties, she decided to go live life instead......
Well, some years later, having lived a LOT of life and subsequently settled in the northwoods of Minnesota, on 33 acres of woods on the Littlefork River, with twelve sled dogs, an outhouse, an occasional weasel breaking and entering, and six kids (one with autism, another with Down syndrome) the artist continued to create, sporadically, in her spare(?) time. She began serious, focused painting of wildlife and sled dog themes, selling to private collectors. When a divorce hastened the necessity to restructure life goals, the artist enrolled in law enforcement school in nearby (40 miles...) Hibbing. She successfully and with honors completed the grueling two year, military-style program, anticipating a sheriff's occupation that would allow her to remain in the beloved woods. As the fates would have it, however, no sheriff retired (thus creating a job opening) that particular year and once again, the path of destiny led back into the ARTS....
And WHAT is she doing........?
Well, next, upon taking part-time employment in a vocational program for adults with develomental disabilities in nearby (30 miles...) Chisholm, the artist went on to create an award-winning arts program that received grant funding to involve many people with disabilities in community art projects, secure commercial-grade computer printing equipment to reproduce their art, and eventually purchase a building to house studio and storefront operations. People with disabilities learned to paint, make prints and giant puppets, and perform. Djembe and conga drums and maracas cluttered the studio. And in the artist’s office, a little beanie anteater and six even smaller anteaters (accumulated by eating happy meals for lunch, on six consecutive days....) sat complacently on a shelf. When queried about them, the artist would tell people that the full impact of having six kids was more apparent when viewing us in anteaters, and with a little encouragement from her devoted and imaginative staff, the motheranteater mystique was born.
This was all very fun and rewarding and endured for eight years, until the artist started questioning some financial decisions being made by the parent organization. Artist and organization parted company on some very fundamental issues, and MotherAnteater Arts rose up out of the ashes. Besides teaching community classes, mentoring private clients, and offering pro bono services in the local arts and disability communities, the MotherAnteater began painting again. Some trial and error listing with eBay convinced the artist that, as a neophyte eBay artist, what her average painting would command divided by the hours of painting time involved, she and the last young anteater remaining at home would likely not eat. So, much as the artist’s romantic soul embraces the starving artist image, her sensible side (the side that went to police school.....) began searching for alternatives. On a whim, she did a few paintings on some good stuff from her favorite shopping place, the thrift store.....
JunkYard Dogs........?
And so that is how JunkYard Dogs started. While they are assuredly speedier to paint than the full-blown composition of a finished, fine art painting, I try to maintain the artistic integrity of each piece. These are NOT cookie-cutter designs that I replicate over and over. Each recycled item comes with its own challenges - idiocyncracies, size, and texture that demand different techniques and treatment than if I were painting on consistent rectangles of canvas or masonite. Very textured surfaces often bring forth a loosely rendered, impressionistic dog, while a smooth surface may end up quite detailed. I strive to keep each dog unique, a personality in paint!
The absolutely most fun part of doing the dogs has been getting to know about all the wonderful pugs, chihuahuas, collies, papillons, shelties, huskies, yorkies, siamese (I know - that’s a cat....) doxies, beagles, etc., etc (and their MOMS and DADS...) all over the country and the world! And I thank each and every one of you, who has given one of my dogs or cats a home!!
So, what else do you need to know........?
It has been wonderful to be painting again and I’m hoping to continue for many years. I am writing this page upon the return from my Dad’s funeral. He would have been ninety in March and was still painting, showing, and selling his work into the final year of his life - an inspiration to all of us for whom art is as essential as breathing. I also continue committed to making the arts possible and accessible for folks with disabilities - the Community Art Market will explore ways to make those opportunities happen.
It is good for artists to develop a philosophy for living, to help explain some of the incomprehensible directions their lives seem to take. During my reckless youth I subscribed to a favorite Kurt Vonnegut quotation, “You are what you pretend to be, so be careful what you pretend to be.” Now that I’m older, and hopefully wiser, I keep finding that Proverbs 3:5-6 consistently makes the most sense for my life. You might want to check it out. The only other thing I would add:
Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction (especially where artists are concerned.....)
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