Maggi Rhudy at Buckhannon River
Growing up in Germany I always made things – sewing, knitting, drawing and painting and other fun endeavors. For a while I lived in Goslar, a 950 year-old medieval town and was awed with the different building styles and nature in the surrounding Harz Mountains. I always had engaging art teachers who let me explore techniques beyond drawing and painting. My art teacher in high school had lost his arm during the war but was never handicapped. He and my uncle who had emigrated to South West Africa after the war and established himself as an artist there, were probably most influential in my choosing to study art.
I spent most of my youth in Berlin, Germany, where I also met my husband. We married in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I was thrilled with the diversity of cultures and the many arts and crafts found there.
When we moved to Toledo, Ohio, it was my turn to attend university and my husband encouraged me to study art at the University of Toledo School of Art and Design, which was located in the basement of the Toledo Museum of Art. The location so close to a large collection of art and the exposure to the Saturday morning classes offered there gave me a lasting enthusiasm for teaching art to young people. I graduated with a BA in Art and an MA in German literature and teaching certification in both subjects.
During the last years I have experimented and learned about many media so that I could show my students the versatility of expression in the visual arts. Since I retired I like to do printmaking, painting, decorating gourds, basket making, paper cut – and whatever I enjoy doing at the moment (like knitting).
I like the natural materials used when working with gourds and bark – it’s like nature has given me a gift and wants me to help it be admired by the onlooker. In my paintings I like to show the beauty of wildflowers that bloom often in hidden spaces and given them personalities.
maggirhudyart 