Posted
on September 7, 2014
I
think you might have heard about this famous artist:
She
began her career as an artist at age 78!
Yet
even with that late start – wait, let's be real – even with that
super duper late start! – Grandma Moses became very successful!
Anna
Mary Robertson Moses was born on this date in 1860. She and her four
sisters and five brothers grew up in New York, where her father ran a
flax mill and farmed his land. Anna painted as a child, but she had
to make her own paints out of natural materials, such as slack lime,
sawdust, lemon and grape juice, grass, ground ochre, and flour.
She
started working full time at age 12; she was a servant who performed
chores, kept house, cooked, and sewed for a variety of wealthy
families. One family noticed her interest in their artwork, and they
gave her chalk so she could create her own artwork.
Finally,
at age 27, she retired from working as a servant to get married and
raise her own family. Of course, that married-and-raising-a-family
stuff was also hard work; she helped with farm work, she had a lot of
kids to birth and care for and feed and clothe, and she made potato
chips and butter to sell.
Every
once in a while, as a wife and mother, Moses was able to create art
to make her home more attractive or to give as gifts to family
members. Some of these art pieces were quilted objects and
embroidered pictures. But Moses had little time to make art until her
arthritis got so bad that she could no longer work on the farm...and at that point, it was also difficult to hold an embroidery needle.
So she started painting.
Grandma Moses painted what she called “old-timey” pictures of country life, the sort of life she experienced when she was younger.
One
might think that a 78 year old woman with painful arthritis wouldn't
create very many paintings. For one thing, she wouldn't have much
time, right?
Actually,
Grandma Moses lived to be 101 years old! And in her 23 years of
art-making, she painted over 1,500 canvasses!
An
art collector saw some of Moses's paintings in a drug store window,
and he bought a whole bunch of them for $3 to $5. He showed some of
her paintings in an exhibit called “Contemporary Unknown American
Painters” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A few years
later Moses had a solo exhibition called “What a Farm Wife
Painted.” Soon she was selling her paintings at Gimbel's Department
Store – and giving away her award-winning baked goods and
preserves! And her work became even more known, even more popular!
Grandma
Moses was named Woman of the Year by several magazines and
organizations. She was awarded honorary PhDs by two different
colleges, the U.S. President (Harry S. Truman) presented Moses with a
trophy for outstanding accomplishment in art, and a documentary of
her life was nominated for an Academy Award. Moses wrote
an autobiography. She appeared on magazine covers and on television. She won numerous awards. One of her paintings hangs in the White House, and Moses's art has
appeared on a U.S. commemorative stamp. On her 100th birthday, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller declared September 7 to be Grandma Moses Day!
To
say that the paintings that the astute art collector bought for just a few
dollars each are worth more now is an understatement. In 2004, one of
Moses's paintings that had sold for $10 in the 1940s was appraised as
being worth 60 THOUSAND dollars. Soon after that, one of her
paintings was sold for 1.2 MILLION dollars!
What
we can learn from Grandma Moses is that it is never too late to start
to do something you love – and although many of us will never find
the success that Moses did, doing something you love to do can be its
own reward.
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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out my Pinterest boards for:
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