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Insiders Page!
Artists Ron
and Phyllis Gann
We welcome you to
our Art Exhibitons and
Insiders Page
about our artists!
Here is
information about each featured artist that influences the methods,
applications and selections of their art creations.
the
how?..
the why?..
the
when?..
the who?...
the where?...
We value the
opportunity to be free both in stylistic painting and writing.
Our objective is definitely not intended to copy
others work nor to be limited by work others have done.
However, there will always be work of the "masters" which
inspires
an artist to want to emulate yet not imitate.
We are all about tradition!
We
are
all about the contemporary!
Our goal for www.myartusa.com is to be a meeting place of the
knowledgeable and the newbee...
where the new meets the established...
where the
results create a good report!
We hope that
each visitor will take
opportunity to connect with our
artists, study their works and experience an appreciation for their
methods and expressions...
May
we introduce our artists to you?
(Just
click on their name)
Ron
Gann
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Ron Gann
Early childhood
reaches into the lifestyle of a
small town, rolling hills and farmland country. During WWII, Ron’s
father and mother had relocated from farmland country near Kansas City
to live with one of his mother’s sisters who had married a pastor
assigned to a church in a small village in Southern Illinois.
Due to
the early death of their
mother, the large family of nine siblings were
split up and sent to various
relatives to live.
Their father worked long hours at a rock quarry and
was unable to supervise the youngsters.
It was hard, hard, times.
Another sister had
previously moved to live with the pastor's sister as well. Ron’s
father began a
life long career in the retail grocery business as his first job in
Illinois working as a meat cutter.
.
Good
news! As
adults, the family began to reassemble after years of
separation. His Grandpa came to live with them.
Later, after the Korean conflict, two brothers of Ron's mother came and
settled in this same town. A third brother and three of her five
sisters settled on the Gulf
coast: Mobile, Gulfport, Long Beach and New Orleans. One of Ron’s
father's brothers also moved to Southern Illinois.
His
other three
brothers and two sisters remained in a close knit family in Western
Missouri working on farms and in assembly
manufacturing. Times were hard. Very
hard!
.
Ron's
dad formed a
partnership with a brother-in-law and stepped into
the realm of the entrepreneur. Ron grew up in the daily activities of
working in the family grocery business from the time he was six years
old. He recalls the tasks of “candling eggs,” “sacking potatoes” and
“stocking the shelves” in the “an old general merchandise store” at
this early age. He also
recalls that food was scarce and rationed due to the war. Weekly, Ron
says he would go with his dad to the local slaughter barn where hogs
and cattle were butchered and his father’s old “Model A Ford” would be
loaded with tubs of the fresh “sides” and “quarters” of the rationed
meat.
Refrigeration
was
limited and it would be a busy time of
cutting up the pork and beef
into pork chops, steaks, roasts, and
grinding hamburger and sausage. Then, it was time for stuffing
the sausage and the call would go out that the meat was ready!
The
old
general store would fill with a line forming out the front door whereby
his father’s customers would quickly redeem their ration coupons in
exchange for the fresh meat.
.
Not
only were the
times hard for everybody due to the war, but, the
work was hard and long hours were required. By 1952,
the
business
had prospered and an associated grocery company out of St. Louis along
with the local bank financed the establishment of a new grocery store.
It was built on a vacant lot next to the old store. Within three years,
the old store, used as a warehouse for the wholesale business was torn
down and the new store was expanded in its place, doubling the size…
the
new facility provided a transformation of the activities of the
business. Delivery
trucks and
wholesale routes were sold.
It
was a time for
change…
Ron
relates that his
years working in his father’s business gave him a
strong foundation of knowledge that has been exercised in numerous
enterprising pursuits over the years. He recalls his involvement in the
struggles the family incurred in the down turn of the economy as well
as in times the store business was booming.
He
says his dad
always put
great demands on him in the family business, but his mother had other
dreams for her children.
He
considers these
imprints have great
value as they have influenced his personal life, his business pursuits,
his unquenchable thirst for new
horizons and his approach in style and
application in his artistic expressions both as a self taught jeweler
and artist.
.
Ron
conveys that his
mother was especially artistic and expressed it in
every way she could. She loved the Christmas season and loved to make
unique decorations and create special cookie, candy and dessert
recipes.
She
painted on
everything she could. She
studied diligently to continue to reach great refinement in her quest
for skill and quality. She practiced a variety of art styles and
invested in a large inventory of ceramics to paint and give as gifts to
others.
He
especially
recalls how she repainted the interior of their
home on several occasions. She
always involved him to assist.
Ron
tenderly tells of his deceased mother’s love of music and art.
She
insisted that he have piano and voice training.
His
younger sister
and two
brothers were also given music and voice training.
.
It
was time to
be a part of the middle school and high school
band. Then, it was time for participating in after school chorus and
drama. He says these endeavors of extra curricular activities caused
conflict with his father’s vision to train his oldest son in business
affairs and delegate the responsibilities of working. School bands
perform in sports events especially on Friday evenings. Newspaper sales
ads run on weekends. People
shop for the weekend to pick up the sale
items on Friday evenings, the reason for late closing of the store.
Ron
says his dad relied heavily on him to work after school, especially on
the late closings of Friday evenings, Saturday and full-time during the
summers. He had been reared in a family environment filled with the
lifestyles of his parents, uncles and aunts who had strong family
values and diligently served others with their products and services
and did it with excellence.
.
Ron
entered college
in the summer of 1959 completing a double major in
education and biology and double minor in geography and industrial
safety. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Education, spring of
1964. Summer of ’64 he returned
to work in the “meat-market” of the family business to support his wife
and three children. In the fall of
‘64 he began a career as an
educator, teaching in the very middle
school of which he had attended as a child. He remained in the Illinois
public education system until 1975 working at various assignments and
locations within the State. All the while he was teaching, he was
pursuing his Master’s Degree of Arts in Psychology that was conferred
upon him by the
State of Illinois Board of Regents in 1972.
.
“The
burn” instilled
by Ron's father for independent enterprise continues
to intrigue him. Ron in the enrichment of family and enrichment
of professional attainments, expanded his interests in teaching his own
children the principles
and beauty for life which had
been instilled in him. Having worked in a family business, worked
as an employee of other small businesses in other small
villages, worked ten years as an entrepreneur in Atlanta and worked as
an independent jeweler for over twenty years in Pensacola
has given Ron extended insight, quest and motivation for expanding the
scope of
entrepreneurial enterprise.
.
Ron
has been
learning the applications of both computer hardware and
software to launch into an extended
pursuit of his and his wife’s vision for instilling generational
aptitudes and attitudes to preserve and enhance family talents.
He deeply desires to pass along the values of successful living to his
grandchildren and great-grand children.
.
Ron
said that it is
important to keep connected and keeping connected
is
a challenge for all. Also, he has expressed that one of his
primary concerns is that everyone is seemingly so busy, it has become
difficult to build common goals and relationships.
Through
the visions
for the websites, he hopes to bridge communication gaps and break the
barriers and constraints of geographical distances for visitors to
them. He sees these websites as product, service
and relational oriented.
.
Ron
has spoken of
his conviction that the opportunity to work and
provide service to others is the most important attribute the Lord has
given to him and to mankind.
He esteems his art
as the action and effort of
bringing forth the creative, latent talent and gift.
To
him, the
breath of the creative idea gives life to the design and completion of
the task. He concludes that "completion results from our efforts
which enables us to enter into the rest from our works.” He
is grateful for
the fruit of creative labor expressed in his paintings and his
writings.
Of great importance to Ron is the love that his wife and partner in
life share for each other. They have been a team in their
marraige as well as in the enterprises of common visions.
The chidren are grown, many of the grandchildren are grown or nearly on
their own. It is now a time of greatgrand babies.
Ron says that many of the children and grandchildren show artistic
talents.
It was Phyllis that encouraged Ron to "stop and smell the roses." Ron
said that Phyllis set the stage for getting him seriously involved in
artistic expression. He said that she frequently spoke of a
talent of perception that was rare in his presentations of drawing out
designs for custom jewelry and other applications. One day she
said,"Come paint with me."
That was the beginning of a new joy in his life. He said that he began
to cherish the time and energy required to create
the paintings and new enrichments in his life.
.
Ron
thinks of
himself as one who has high-minded and
worthy goals. He hopes that he can share truth and experiences of
success with others and that they will incorporate them to enrich their
lives. One of his prayers is that he be blessed with health and
long life to attain these goals and time to enjoy the
accomplishments.
On Ron's father’s generational side, Ron’s great
grandfather lived to be 96
years old. His grandmother lived to be 100
years old. His father was 91
when he died in June of 2007.
Ron
and his
father had a special
zest for
experiencing and sharing the
enrichment of life with each other and
with others!
Ron
is a visionary,
writer, webmaster, artist and a serious student of the Bible as an
ordained
minister.
He
has built a
ministry website to touch the international
community of the
world wide web:
www.virtualcityoflights.com
All are welcome and
invited to visit the website.
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Phyllis
Gann
Phyllis was the
firstborn child of young hardworking parents in rural
South Georgia. She remembers the birth of her siblings, the love of her
parents, the creativity of her mother and father.
She recalls the fears
of family members concerned about their five young men serving in War
World II.
Also,
she deeply
recalls her father serving in WWII. When her
father returned from the war and reunited with the family she remembers
the great joy and happiness it brought.
The
war had a
deep impact upon Phyllis.
It left
embedded memories upon her life.
Two of the five even endured Pearl
Harbor.
However,
all except
the one that was on the beaches at Normandy
had unexpected health problems and passed away within five years after
their tour of duty.
The
loss of her father and her uncles had a deep emotional effect
on Phyllis, her mother, her sister and brother.
At
age eleven
Phyllis recalls the fear of another traumatic influence.
Everyone was building bomb shelters with the expectation for all hell
to break loose any moment.
These events have influenced the way in which she looks
at life and her approach to her art.
Phyllis
was educated
in South Georgia U.S.A. Phyllis recalls that
she was studious, dutiful, determined and rather intelligent for her
age.
She was an honor student.
She claims she excelled to honor the memory
of her father
and to demonstrate the influence he had upon her young
life.
She has an eye for beautiful things and in her youth enjoyed the
movies, especially James Dean and all the handsome
stars of the
fifties; Marilyn, Jayne, Lana and of course
Paul Newman! She
recalls how exciting the music was with the start of Rock and Roll, as
well as the Rhythm and Blues…even throughout the 1960’s.
From
the beginning
of her memories, Phyllis intuitively
knew that she
could
draw and create likenesses of anyone
and anything.
Thinking
that
everyone else could do this, too, she didn’t recognize this as talent.
She did not know until later in her teens that it was a gift. She tells
about creating a paper-mache doll that was shaped and looked just like
Barbie in art class. Her teacher could not understand why such a well
behaved young child would do such a thing; the whole class was a buzz!
A year later Mattel introduced Barbie to the world and you know that
success story. She has always believed that she was just a little ahead
of her time on that one.
.
Phyllis
believes
that the diversity of emotions she has come through
has given her an edge on how to express one’s self in the arts. She is
unafraid to be a pacesetter… out there if you will… in her use of
color…
including shinny things like gold and silver!
Most
of her work is
in a
high key. Her unabashed love of color is shown in all her works.
She painted significant works with a metallic gold and silver
background long before either was accepted in the art world.
.
After
marriage and
early child bearing, Phyllis began to pursue a
career. She became a highly professional business woman and
innovative
entrepreneur! She has spent many years in successful business
endeavors. She has returned to her first love of being Wife, Mother,
Granny and Artist.
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Tami Clark
Tami was born with a
desire to create.
During her early childhood years
she found her love for nature. Whether it was on the farm
watching the horses and cows, or in an ever-changing display of how a
day goes by… she has always been fascinated with nature.
.
As
early as
pre-school Tami remembers having a desire to transfer this
passion for life by creating artistic expressions.
She has used a
multitude of mediums, as well as finding that this passion surpasses a
gallery display and the sum total of her works. It extends into the
every moment of each day
found in something as simple as creating
an atmosphere in giving someone a smile that will cause an emotion to
be
shared from one individual to another.
.
Art
is part of this
kind of life, a passionate life,
where those who feel it are
drawn to it.
This is a display of the path
Tami has traveled, and today
as the experiences of life have been
acquired, she desires to transfer emotions captured into a sense of a
moment that art brings to those who love it.
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Manya Morohovich
Manya is a very full of life and loves to live on the edge of
adventure. She has a passion for the imaginative world and
is intrigued with the World of Disney. She loves vidrant colors
and is progressive in the telling all her family and friends how
to be trend setters in the flare of fashion and style.
She loves the beach life as you will see in her paintings.
She is daring and bold and is an enthusiastic biker.
Weekends find her motoring off with the wind in her hair and seeking
venues of unique and quaint places to travel
and to experience.
Her artist style reflects her passion as a pace setter.
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Marina Marie
Morohovich
Marina was born in Shallowford Hospital located in
Atlanta, Ga. It was a chilly December evening. Her young mother and
grandparents were excited about the coming of the third granddaughter.
The first 2 ½ years of her life were spent in the
suburbs of Metro-Atlanta. Soon her family relocated to Pensacola,
Fl.
At a young tender age, she also lived in northeast Texas on a cattle
ranch, giving her a cowgirl aptitude at times.
At 24 years of age, Marina was tragically and fatally injured
in an auto accident in a sudden and violent rain storm on
July 22, 2008.
We deeply grieve her loss and miss the joy and zest for life
she shared with us and everyone.
.
Pensacola was her mainstay. She grew up in the
Naval town with its beautiful beaches and diverse surroundings.
She began her education in Christian schools where she excelled in all
her subjects. She attended high school and graduated from public
schools. Her family always knew she was talented, though they
could not convince
Marina of this.
It wasn’t until middle school that she began to see
that she
had artistic talent. In her high school years she experienced
multiple art classes. Her teachers encouraged her to do her best and
knew even then that she had the potential to do something great!
She
began entering her artwork in local art shows and received
“Honorable Mention.”
.
She released her feelings as they came to
life in many of her works. Her talent exceeds that of many seasoned
artists with her flare for exotic tropical life and colors.
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