Pottery/Sculpture Club: Sheila Millendorf
When Sheila Millendorf graduated from Cooper Union in New York with a degree in fine arts, she likely would never have imagined the direction her artistic skill and vision would take her.
While living in Santa Fe, Sheila honed her passion for multimedia minimalist art vignettes. It wasn’t until she moved to PebbleCreek and wandered into the pottery studio that she started relying primarily on clay in the creation of her sometimes whimsical, and other times, very moving sculptures.
Sheila finds inspiration in her own experiences. For instance, the sculpture showing the woman and the goose which she named “Goosed,” was inspired by her own unfortunate run in with a goose that was determined to run her off.
The piece showing the woman holding the book was inspired by the traditional Navajo art known as the Storyteller.
Fairy tales also provide a great source of inspiration for Sheila’s creations. The sculpture with the large shoe is actually a lamp and was inspired by the nursery school rhyme about the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Her next project will be based on Jack and the Beanstalk. Those of us who hang out in the pottery studio can’t wait to watch this new work of art come to life.
Jean Watson-Weidner
Ceramics Club: Jean Watson-Weidner
Susan Eastman
Even in the fourth grade, Jean knew she wanted to be a lawyer, just like her father. Like many of us though, it wasn’t a straight line to her chosen profession but a circuitous route that took her to many parts of the country.
Growing up in Lakewood, Colo., Jean attended the University of Colorado, then met and married a Naval officer, moving to Alameda, Calif., shortly after. Children came next, a boy and a girl. The family moved 18 times in six years while she was a stay-at-home mom. A divorce prompted Jean’s move back to Colorado, where, finally, at age 39 she chose to go to law school. Dreams of childhood can come true!
Following an internship, she was hired by a private utility that served small areas in multiple states. The investor-owned utility downsized so Jean decided to start her own practice in Denver. She specialized in small business consultation and estate planning for six years. Working the daunting hours that are required of any business entrepreneur, she was pleased to accept an offer from the Colorado Attorney General’s office where she carved out a niche in utilities dealing with renewables such as wind and solar. The normality of a regular schedule was a welcome change.
As fortune would have it, she met Tom Weidner, an attorney who worked for a gas company. Kindred spirits, they later married. Introduced by Colorado friends to PebbleCreek (PC), they “snowbirded” for two years before taking the plunge to move here in 2019.
Jean was always a crafter, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and beading, but never ceramics. However, a new friend in her PC unit, Debbie Samples, invited Jean to join her in the ceramics studio. She did and was off to a whole new world of discovery. After years of precisely following patterns in the needle crafts, Jean found that ceramics required a completely different approach. A ceramic piece was a blank canvas that called for an intuitive response that is both emotional and intellectual at the same time. The questions of technique, paint choices, and methodology were all decisions to be confronted in determining how to progress with a piece. Jean loved this freedom to create unique art. With the assistance of our outstanding teachers, Kelli Frederickson and Linda Galowitch, she tried lots of new techniques that included Talavera, dry brush, acrylic paints, and various glazes each with their distinctive results.
Jean is grateful for the talents of the ceramics instructors who encouraged her in the exploration of this new art. Equally gratifying has been the community of friends she has built through ceramics—a funny, fun–loving group of folks.