by Rebecca Thomson | May 20, 2019
Wendy Klein is an artist who lives in Florida and has given art to TAE since 2014. It seemed wholly appropriate that this month’s blog, which falls during the TAE Exhibition, should be on an artist who has given so generously to the exhibition for the last six years.
As we are right in the middle of the TAE19 sale, it would be great to hear why you give to this Charity?
The Twitter Art Exhibit is one of my true loves, and recently Art In Healthcare as well. I had just moved back to Florida in May of 2013 and entered my first #TAE in 2014 and drove up to Orlando for the opening of that event! I was absolutely in awe!!!!!
I still am! I got to meet David Sandum, Nat Georgela and Robin Pedrero. Twitter Art Exhibit…it’s in my blood. I just had to give to them every year.
When did you know that you wanted to be an artist?
I actually started to oil paint when I was six years old. My Nonna let me paint because my kindergarten teacher went home to my Mom and told her I was an Artist. My Mom says I was like this since I was three, so I guess I was born this way.
I never thought it was a big deal much. Now that I’m older, I can see why people think that. I was fortunate enough to have been sent to Art School at the age of ten and got kicked out at thirteen and sent to an all adult, life drawing only class afterwards for strict traditional training for two years until I changed to sculpture…but then University was back to painting.
How do you fit your art into your daily routine?
I don’t think a lot about what it means to be an Artist or much about how I fit it into my life. I take care of my Mom three days a week and paint every chance I get. I’ve been an Artist since I can remember so I have no real perspective the way someone else might have. I never thought it was a big deal much.
What do you wish you had known 40 years ago when you started painting?
I started painting when I was 6 but wasn’t serious about it until I was 10, so that’s about to be 54 years ago. I wish I had known that there wasn’t a job in the paper for a fine Artist. But really, that’s about it! I paint from the heart. So maybe if there were one thing I would say is listen to yourself. Follow your passion, follow your heart and no matter how many times you hear someone say no, or don’t…don’t listen. Listen to your Spirit. Listen to your heart. And (if you paint) “keep painting, it is the Sustenance of Life”. ~quote by artist Harold Gregor
Wendy Klein's 2019 TAE entry, 2017 TAE entry, and 2015 TAE entry
Art & well-being are important to you, how do you think it impacts your life and life of others?
I’ve always been a kind of hippie flower child Artist, so have always done art for art's sake and while that’s not very lucrative, it is deeply fulfilling. And in my case, Art probably saved me during my teen years when I suffered abuse. It was an escape and a safe place where I could create a beautiful reality. Looking back I can see that art saved me.
Being part of TAE really resonates with me, as it does so much good for charities. This year the charity Art In Healthcare is of particular interest to me because I am of the strong desire and belief that we (in the United States) need something exactly like Art In Healthcare here!