Women Who Create
Throughout Coweta, they paint, sculpt and build original art
Written by FRANCES KIDD | Photos COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS
From the kiln to the finished pieces, Suzanne Kleese-Stamps guides clay from clumps to works of art.
Art is a universal language. From the first stories told through pictures drawn on cave walls, artists have relayed history through drawings, paintings, architecture and sculptures. Joy, sorrow, anger, peace – emotions and experiences are shared in many ways.
According to the “Women’s History Blog,” women artists in the 19th century signed their work with a first initial and last name, concealing their gender. While women artists began making significant gains in the second half of that century, they are still sometimes overlooked and their work undervalued. But they persist.
Over the years, Coweta County has seen the development of many resources that support artists. In the 1960s, Tom Powers and Harriet Alexander were major inspirations for local artists. Powers founded and directed the Powers Crossroads Country Fair and Art Show which brought artists and visitors from all over the country to exhibit and sell at Coweta County.
Among the area’s first artists of note, Powers taught classes at the county recreation center. At least one of his early students has said that, while she didn’t become an accomplished artist, his lessons gave her a curiosity and passion for fine art that has greatly enriched her life.
While Alexander’s career was in nursing, she found time to create her own art and to help start the Newnan-Coweta Art Association (NCAA) in 1968.
Local artist and respected art teacher Bette Hickman knew both Powers and Alexander. “I loved being around him,” Hickman says of Powers. “His classes were filled with ladies and his love of art was infectious.”
Alexander was a “force to be reckoned with,” Hickman continues. “I knew her as the driving force behind the Art Association. When I joined, I was the youngest member and I was awed by Harriet. She empowered women, and the Art Association is thriving today because of her steadfast work.”
Today, local artists are supported in their pursuit of the arts by school teachers as well as new places to display, sell and teach art. Newnan ArtRez brings artists from other places to Newnan for residencies that give local art enthusiasts the opportunity to experience many different kinds of art. Some of the visiting artists leave public installations when their residency is completed.
One lady artist living and working in Coweta today is potter and NCAA member Suzanne Kleese-Stamps. “I started in college taking studio art and art history,” says Kleese-Stamps. “I started painting because I had a great professor who inspired me.” Later, she added pottery and ceramic arts classes, followed by an interest in paper-making and the 3D arts.
“When I graduated from college, I had a series of corporate jobs, but I always knew I’d left something behind,” Kleese-Stamps recalls. She began taking classes at Atlanta’s Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and found she couldn’t stop.
Since 2016, she’s been busy at her Indigo Pottery Studio. “I learned all aspects of the art, from handbuilding to sculpting, but found my groove in throwing pottery on the wheel,” she says. It wasn’t long before she started getting into shows and was asked to place her art in small boutiques. When asked about other potters in the area, Kleese-Stamps says she knows of at least a dozen.
“I’ve seen more in the younger female generation, including my own daughter, Audrey, who are harnessing the power of social media,” she says.
In addition to doing her own art, Kleese-Stamps promotes local and regional art and artists. “I believe the creative arts are a direct reflection of the community from which it flourishes,” she says. “When art becomes an integral part of a community or region, that is where a healthy culture and standard of living takes root.”
Stained-glass artist Michelle Thomasula also got an early start. “Art has been part of my life since I was really young,” she says. “I majored in art education because I wanted to be an art teacher.”
While she has taken breaks from her art, she is back at it and says her sons “are over the moon that I’m doing it again.”
An underlying thread from these artists is the importance of getting to know other artists. Thomasula joined the Artists Heritage Guild, a local arts group that promotes artists and offers classes in different forms of art.
While she agrees with the importance of an artist community, Tomasula also says, “My art saved me through COVID; I wouldn’t have had anything else to do.”
California native Rae Duncan joined the NCAA almost the minute she arrived in Newnan. “The art association saved me,” she says. “It gave me a community of like-minded people.”
Duncan is now an officer of the association and says it has great potential to grow as the community grows. “I feel privileged to have the depth and breadth of artists on our roster,” she notes.
Currently, more than 50% of NCAA members are women, and annual shows hosted by NCAA provide opportunities for women to get recognition for their art.
Duncan says her story isn’t unusual. “I received a degree in Fine Arts, but I spent 30 years in the corporate arena,” she says. Duncan stayed close to art – as a production artist and later as an illustrator in graphic design – but she missed making her own art. Now, in addition to creating paper art pieces and teaching, Duncan has curated exhibits at Southern Arts Dance Studio in Newnan.
Sandy Essex found her art at the University of Michigan. “I walked into the metals class in my senior year, and I knew I was home,” she recalls. One of the few women in the metals class, she fell in love with sterling silver and now makes everything from rings and other jewelry to a church chalice and medium to
large pieces.
It takes a lot of patience to work with precious metals, according to Essex, who says she works with cold metals which are heated and cooled down during the forming process. She describes her work almost poetically: “I love working with silver. It’s like a good dance partner and will go where you lead it. Gold is arrogant. Silver turns color as it gets hot, but gold just holds the heat until it melts.”
Other women in Coweta are practicing art as well as working to support women artists.
Study after study proves that art has a positive effect on the mind, body and soul, according to Kim Ramey of Backstreet Community Arts. “We provide a safe, welcoming, creative environment to anyone who may benefit from the healing power of art and community,” she says, noting that those who hang out at Backstreet Arts are an eclectic mix of diverse people.
“And they encourage women artists,” she adds.
When Bette Hickman first drove into Newnan, she “had an incredible sense that this was a town that welcomed art,” the art teacher recalls. Whether or not she was correct at the time, Hickman has made a large contribution toward making her vision a reality.
In 1979, Hickman started Young Artists of Newnan and Coweta where she teaches students from four and a half to 13 years old. She continues to see art growing in Coweta: “We consistently have a waiting list to get in, and we have legacy classes with children of former students.”
Newnan painter David Boyd Jr. attributes his career to the influence of women in his life.
“A lot of people have helped me along the way. Most are women,” says Boyd. “Bette Hickman was my first art teacher. And Phyllis Rogers, my art teacher at Heritage, told me I should go to art school when no one around here had heard of art school. And Millie Gosch changed my life when she invited me to a plein air painting session.”
These are just a few of the accomplished women artists around Coweta. Some have “done art” all their lives, while others have taken up art after retirement and say it’s been “a godsend.” Many are content to make art for themselves, while others look for venues to display their work.
One thing is certain: Boyd is right when he says the Newnan-Coweta area is a “rich environment” for artists.
And women are increasingly important to that environment. NCM