I love playing with COLOR, and enjoy personal expression in many medias and styles: realistic, abstract, non-objective, 2D & 3D. I love experimenting, and my work is currently very eclectic. As many beginning artists, I’ve yet to settle on my own particular style in this  “Part 2” of my life.

“Part One” of my life started in Brooklyn, New York. I was an artistic child, and showed real promise through high school, but married too young. As a divorced mother of 3 on welfare, I finished getting an Associates Degree in Art & Advertising Design, and worked in advertising and publishing. Eventually, when my kids were almost grown, I remarried, and “Mike” and I had 20 years together before he passed away. Two years later, I retired from my last job at “McGraw-Hill Professional” as an art director of professional book covers, and moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Why Winston-Salem? My youngest son was near there, and he convinced me that the 4 grandkids needed a grandma, and that it was cheaper than New York.

It was a big leap to leave my beloved Brooklyn, but Winston-Salem turned out just fine.  My eldest son moved to W-S shortly after, leaving just one son still in New York, with another granddaughter, whom I miss.

I settled in my new location and enjoyed minding the grandkids, but as they got a bit older, I wanted to get back to fine art. I took a few classes at The Sawtooth School, Forsyth Tech, and finally Salem College. Being part of regular college art classes at Salem as a Fleer Student was just great. I learned so much that I missed in my youth. Learning with other students and learning about old and more modern Masters gave me confidence to let myself emerge, at last. My newest work shows the influence of several of my favorite artists: Turner, Rothko, Still, Hartung, Klee, to name a few.

Now my little house is overflowing with art projects, and I’m finally being the creative person I was born to be.  I don’t have enough years left to become a master of a particular style myself, but who knows? I DO like variety, so maybe my style will continue to be eclectic. Only time will tell.

Margaret Webster-Shapiro