Emily Hadley

The practice of art is alive and well and progressing beautifully at the Fillmore Senior Center. The community is invited to enjoy the results of the arts program on Saturday, January 31 from 10am to 2pm as part of the Center’s Open House.

Four instructors and their students will be on hand to display and discuss the work they have been enjoying in the classes at the Center. Virginia Neuman, who works in acrylics, oils and watercolor, teaches drawing on Mondays. Virginia is an active practicing artist having worked in England, where she was born, as well as in France and the US. Virginia is a veteran of the Fillmore United School District where she established Independent Art Programs at Piru and San Cayetano.

Wana Klasen offers a watercolor class on Thursdays. A retired Registered Nurse and former educational administrator, Wana is a multi-disciplined artist working in watercolor, acrylic and collage. Currently, she is helping to lay the foundation for a local program of Artists for Trauma, a group seeking to provide art instruction for seriously disabled civilians and members of the military.

On Tuesdays, Karen Scott Browdy teaches a composition class based on collage and mixed media. Karen’s teaching experience includes 14 years as an adjunct instructor in Santa Barbara City College’s Adult Education Division. At present, she continues to teach independently in Carpinteria and Los Alamos, CA while maintaining a studio as an artist-in-residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo. Karen works in collage and assemblage.

Every other Tuesday, Charlene Smith convenes a decorative gourd class. She has been working in this medium since 1997 and in her own work, concentrates on masks. However, in class at the Senior Center, her students turn out bowls, rattles, drums and spirit dolls. Pyrography, carving, painting and dyeing are all a part of gourd art and make for interesting art pieces.

All of these artists regularly exhibit their work in various Ventura County venues and will have examples on display and for sale at the Open House. In addition, student work will be displayed and sold with a portion of all sales going to the programs of the Fillmore Senior Center Incorporated, a non-profit organization.