RITA FULMER
Growing up in Lansing, Michigan; like most children, Rita loved doodling and drawing pictures. Rita never considered her work to be ART. The true artist in the family was her sister. She was very talented. Rita never imagined that she could create “Real Art”.
Along the way in life, she did the normal “Arts and Crafts” thing. It wasn’t until a move to Florida that Rita took her first real art class —- in watercolors. She thought it was fun, though her work needed help.
It wasn’t until retiring in 2012 to Mesquite, NV and joining the Mesquite Fine Arts Center that Rita knew she could do ART. Taking classes at the gallery, taking outside art classes by professionals and many online classes Rita has been truly inspired to step outside the watercolor on paper art. She has branched out: painting on rocks, on leaves, on eggshells, on tea bags.
Teaching at the gallery has been a gradual process. Rita has taught a couple of student art classes (Get Smart With Art).
Art is all around us; just take time to see it.
DOTTIE GOLDEN
They say all humans are born from the earth, but if you have ever met Dottie, you know this is true.
Dottie loves mud and frogs. It is in her DNA. As a child she swam in a nearby creek with mud and polliwogs. She loves to take a groggy ball of clay in her hands, forming it into something that will become a cherished morning ritual, part of a special dinner party, or functional kitchenware that will last generations.
Like many potters, she got hooked while attending high school. She has taken a few pottery classes, but mostly she has learned by trial and error and from local pottery studios like the one operated by the Virgin Valley Artists’ Association, in Mesquite.
Dottie stopped pottery to raise her three wonderful children. When they were grown, she and her husband bought a busy coffee shop in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. Clay returned to her as a respite in her crazy busy life, forcing her to slow down and focus on something besides work.
She has dabbled in many forms of art in her life but has always been drawn back to pottery. One Christmas, her husband surprised her by secretly transforming the garage into a full clay studio. That was a game-changer. Now retired, she spends countless hours learning, creating, teaching, and sharing the joys of clay.
Dottie is a true pothead…in a manner of speaking. Dottie is also on the Board of Directors and is currently serving as President of the Virgin Valley Artists’ Association.