ABOUT Marcia

Who Is Marcia? I am an 82 year old widow. Over my lifetime, I have frequently redefined myself. As a child I was extremely shy, almost reclusive. Trying to talk to people was difficult, so I taught myself to read and had my own library card before reaching my sixth birthday. I had Scarlet Fever when I was 3 which left me witresidual balance problem. Unfortunately, no one recognized the problem until I left for college. So grew up thinking I couldn’t do what everyone else could. That feeling was accentuated when I learned that my eyes were very weak and needed glasses. Suddenly, there was another thing everyone else could do that I couldn’t - see. Somewhere along the way, I decided to ignore other people and go my own way. I would just do what I chose no matter what anyone else thought. I attended Brandeis University, graduating with a degree in chemistry. Most of my spare time was spent in the labs, experimenting and watching the grad students pursue their thesis. After graduating I learned that science was generally available to women. Having neither the inclination nor money for graduate school, I looked for alternatives and noticed that employers looking for people in new fields ignored my sex in favor of hiring someone who needed a minimum of training. So, over the years, I moved from inorganic chemistry to physical chemistry, to atmospheric physics, to developing optical instruments that measured the atmosphere, to computer analysis of the atmosphere, to writing computer software for optical design and analysis. From there I was moved into scientific management completing my working career as a senior project manager. By the time I retired, I had spent more than 40 years working about 60 hours a week on projects for my employers.

When I retired, I needed to find ways of occupying myself. So began taking courses about subjects I had never investigated. One major area of investigation was learning to paint. Additionally, I studied writing - articles, family reminiscences and short stories. While I had been a photographer from the age of 10, I studied abstract photography and started going on field trips to explore landscape and group photography.

Today, my time is spent creating several types of artwork - paintings, drawings and photographs. I use color and texture to demonstrate emotions or feelings or impressions. My familiarity with computers allow me to create jpegs of each of those and then to use Photoshop Elements and Luminaire 4 to create new pieces of artwork, again based on different images.