Honoring These Two Artists For “International Artist Day” On October 25, 2021

Today is “International Artist Day.”

Let’s take a look and learn more about this day and why it’s celebrated.

Art is an expression that is portrayed in many ways through many forms. Read more about this day here. ► “International Artist Day.”

Today, I’d like to take this time to share two artists and their works with you. You may remember me featuring them awhile back.

First, we are honoring a Kansas City artist, Marilyn C. McWilliams.

She is the mother of our friend whom our family grew up with, Paul McWilliams.

Sadly, his mother passed away in 2017. We wanted to show you her talented life as an artist.

Her Amazing Story

Marilyn’s Love For Art Started At A Very Young Age.  

Once she was ready to venture out on her own, she attended the Kansas City Art Institute here in Kansas City.  When landing her first job, she started working at Hallmark Cards as an artist.

After Hallmark, Marilyn worked the rest of her professional life as a freelance artist for a variety of women’s clothing stores in Kansas City. She illustrated the entire catalog for local women’s wear manufacturer, Fashionbilt, for many years.  Fashionbilt – a significant women’s wear manufacturer that was located in the KC garment district on 8th Street. For those that are not familiar with the history behind the Kansas City garment industry. Here is an interesting article written by ► MONROE DODD on September 11, 2015.

She became involved with the fashion art for the high-end women’s stores on the Plaza, as well.  

 Art Classes

She frequently took classes in a variety of mediums including sculpting, oil, and acrylics. She and her grandson were kindred spirits who could communicate more without passing a word than could with conversation. Their styles were very different, but they saw things similarly.  Artists tend to see emotion in what they draw and paint, and the good ones communicate that emotion in ways that allow us to feel it too. Stay tune for part two in this post, as her grandson’s art will be featured in a different post.

In addition to being known as one of the top fashion illustrators in KC, Marilyn loved to paint portraits and had an uncanny ability to reveal the personality of her subjects.

Volunteer Work

Marilyn left the Kansas City area for Texas in 1975 and passing through Houston and Austin, settled with her husband in Tyler, TX. Marilyn loved people logged over 10,000 hours as a volunteer with The USO, American Red Cross, St. David’s Hospital, ETMC, TASCA, Meals on Wheels, Hospice of East Texas, The Great Get Away Cancer Camp, The Tyler Art League and the University Christian Church where she was also a member for nearly three decades. As a member of the Tyler Art League, Marilyn participated in the annual Pallet of the Roses where she won 8 Blue Ribbons.

This is the photograph used to paint “The Rugged Face of Crete.” The photographer, John Fabac, who won an award for this photo.

Here is a public article written by “Explore Crete” The travel guide to real Crete. to tell you more of the  pillage of Anogia and the story behind the destruction of Anogia. Read story ► here.

What Marilyn Loved Most

Marilyn loved doing charcoal sketches of patients attending Cancer Camp and even when arthritis made it uncomfortable, she persisted for nearly 20-years.

She had a gentle way of relaxing the patients and would sketch them as they looked before the side effects took their toll.

The vast majority of those sketches were taken by the patients or given to the surviving families of patients that didn’t make it, but a few are included in the photographs here.

Most of these sketches are of patients attending “The Great Get Away Cancer Camp” in Tyler, TX. Marilyn attended this weekend camp every year for nearly 20 years. She often sketched into the night even though her arthritis would stiffen her hand. When she ran out of time, she would take photographs, do the sketches at home and deliver them.

Remembering Marilyn C. McWilliams

Here is a beautiful article written about her by Augusta Robinson, Sept. 8, 2017.

► “Tyler Morning Telegraph”

More Of Marilyn C. Williams’s Beautiful Art

Our Next Feature Is Marilyn’s Grandson

Jason McWilliams was born in 1976. Unfortunately, he passed away half way through his college sophomore year, in 1996.

Jason lived a life of many talents. Outside of being very artistic, he played and lettered in the marching band all four of his high school years at Blue Valley North.

He could play virtually any musical instrument. He learned to play them after practicing on them just a short time. In band, he played all the different saxophones.

How Jason Communicated With His Art

As an artist, he communicated emotions through his art. For example, many artists will paint a face using flesh tones, lighting, and reflections which actually sends many other colors to our eyes that our brain tune out. That’s where artists tune in. When Jason colored as a child, it was evident he tuned into these colors that brought life and emotions to his images. When he expressed concerned about this, his dad told him, “Bluebirds don’t have to be blue.” This resonated with Jason and he stayed true to that statement.

His Former Years

When Jason was in grade school, around eight or nine years old, his parents enrolled him in evening art classes. These classes were taught by professional artists to mostly middle aged students. Jason felt a little intimidated around the older students and they were curious about him being there. Once they saw his talent, he was quickly accepted as their peers.

Jason And His Grandmother

Jason and his grandmother had kindred spirits and communicated on the same level. Even though his grandmother had come from a line of artists and was a professional in her own right, she was taken in by Jason’s talent. She and Jason had radically different styles.  His grandmother stayed more towards the traditional bounds of art, whereas Jason was not afraid to go outside the boundaries. He enjoyed testing past them. They learned from each other and complimented each other in many ways.

Jason’s High School Years

When Jason was in high school he was introduced the person in charge of the art department. She had never met a student like Jason. She asked for him to be quizzed out of his basic classes and she developed a curriculum for just him.

One challenge many artists face is finding live figures to draw. Most artists are intimidated to paint people they know. His junior year in high school, his art teacher and parents worked together, enrolling him into a course at Johnson Country community College.

Jason participated in the regional Scholastic Art where he won two Hallmark Awards, one his junior year and one his senior year in high school. He also won many gold, silver, and “Best of Show” awards. He set records in district competitions that probably still stand. Jason was widely recruited by art schools around the U.S. He accepted a scholarship to Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. (MIAD) This program is well known for the best Fundamentals Curriculum. This is the baseline for freshmen students.

He then applied for a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) for his sophomore year. It has a wide respect for providing the best painting curriculum.

From there, Jason planned to apply to colleges in Europe as he pursed the best programs around the world. Unfortunately, these plans were cut short midway through his sophomore year in college.

A Personal Note On Jason’s Life

Jason grew up with his younger ten year old sister. They had a unique and close relationship. While most teenage boys would view their sister as a tag-along, Jason love taking his sister Jamie places with him.

Jason also had many friends from all walks of life, He had a special way, not only making one feel welcomed, but special in their own right. His friends all commonly agreed, Jason had “an old soul” and was wise beyond his years. He was as gentle as a teddy bear.

I want to thank the McWilliams family for allowing me to feature these special artists on my page. Like I have told them many times, “How I wish I could have met, Marilyn and Jason McWilliams.”

If you would like to leave your thoughts, please click on the comment section below. We would love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by today and Happy International Artist Day!

As always, happy reading,

Rosie