Spring 2005

The Beauty of the Journey

By Beverly Knight

Langston Hughes wrote of a "dream deferred." A dream can smolder for years, so far below the conscious level that it seems dead, and then explode into a full-blown passion.

Jill Jones knows that. After graduating from Chesnee High School and earning a degree in journalism, she worked first as a journalist and then a freelance writer for national magazines. But memories of a high school art class remained, waiting for a spark to ignite them.

As a writer, she covered the art scene, but the spark was Teresa Prater, chair of Converse College's Department of Art and Design.
"I was taking an art class and my teacher suggested I look at Teresa's work," Jones said. "When I saw her show at Gallery 522, 1 had an epiphany. "

The most daunting thing for the award-winning writer was being" a beginner again." Then she realized that painting "completely absorbed" her, even, she said, "on days when I paint badly." It was a heady experience, one athletes call "being in the flow," losing all track of time.

She realized that she had always chosen to do things she was "good" at. Taking this leap was frightening, but after private lessons with Prater, she enrolled in Converse II, a program tailored for students 24 an older.

"I once read a sign that said, 'Fear is a companion that we take on all our life journeys,' and my fear returns every time I show my work," Jones said of the continuing process artists go though searching for validation.

Now that she's "finding homes for everything I'm painting, " her modern landscapes selling in urban markets such as Charlotte, she is beginning to feel as comfortable with art as she once did with words.

"I felt like a writer because I started writing early. I felt like a good writer," Jones said. "With art it was the one rejection that discouraged me. Now I am finally able to say, 'I'm an artist.' It took me a long time to say that."

Jeanine Garrett, just turned 40, has barely begun her odyssey. Like Jones, the Converse II student had a successful career before pursuing her dream.

After high school, she left New Jersey for Clemson University, where she earned a degree in mechanical engineering. After college she worked in Greenville for eight years, until she and her husband separated two years ago. She felt drawn to take an art class at Greenville Technical College.

"I hadn't had much art when I was young, one class in high school and an art history class at Clemson," Garrett explained. "But I found I loved sculpture and printmaking, maybe because I'm so process-oriented."

She decided she wanted to teach, moved to a house in Converse Heights and enrolled at Converse. Now, looking forward to graduation in May, she's checking out graduate schools, ready to take the last step toward realizing her dream.

"When I told people what I was planning, they sat me down and said 'What are you thinking.' But I just decided to take a class and see what happened," Garrett said, admitting it took a "difficult time of life" to get her to this "happier place."

It's no coincidence that both women found inspiration in Prater. Though she was drawing horses in second grade, she followed what she calls "a crooked road" to her career. In the light-filled office in the Milliken Fine Arts Building, surrounded by art work and the detritus of 15 years at Converse, her love of teaching is apparent.

But she almost didn't get there. Her career path took a
turn at the University of Tennessee when she married and completed a degree in social work instead of art. She went to work as a youth director for a non-profit organization. Then Prater took a painting class and was "hooked" again.

She still has a passion for equine art, to the delight of buyers who snap up her edgy charcoals, but she also paints and has recently turned to mixed media.

"I have passion. I believe in causes and care about things. Art taps into that deeper passion. It allows me to create something new, to create this kind of new reality," Prater said of her work that she describes as "conceptually challenging, but not always pretty."

What she's most drawn to though is working with people, taking pride in the successes of students. But, she said, success can be gauged in many ways. She considers herself a trainer of patrons of the arts as well as artists.

Prater knows that people with passion make valuable contributions. They buy original art, join the local artists' guild, contribute financially to organizations that support the arts or volunteer their time. There are many ways to indulge a passion.
And it's never too late.