Friend
I took art in high school and so enjoyed it. After having my children I took private lessons in oil and acrylic and was lucky enough to have 2 paintings in a juried show and sold 2. After building a log cabin in Maine I found yarn art as something I could do caring for 3 children and a small farm. When my husband and I moved aboard our boat I did some sketching but with small spaces continued with yarn art. Now I would like to paint again but continue with yarn art and diamond painting. This group of women bring joy into my life at this point in my life! Thank you for letting me be a friend!
Friend
Teaching, writing and theater were her passions’ while living and working in Spain and Germany for over three decades. She taught Conversational Spanish to the military and College level courses at Torrejon Air Force Base in Madrid. In Germany she was a K-8 Guidance Counselor and High School Spanish teacher for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, journaling and writing poetry of her experiences while living and traveling in various locations. Special highlights of her travels include performing at the International Theater Festival in Dundalk, Ireland, 3 trips to Venice, and most recently, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador where she photographed and painted watercolors of the Blue-Footed Boobies, one of her favorite birds. Now living in Cape Canaveral she is a member of the Brevard Authors Society, Wednesday Morning Writers, Central Brevard Art Association, Group Therapy Improv at the Library and Nolan’s Irish Pub Ukulele Collective. She also volunteers and has performed in ‘Our Town’, and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at Surfside Theater.
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Friend
Barbara recently retired as a Geriatric Social Worker, Certified Care Manager and the Director of One Senior Place. That is where she met Marion Coste and Donna Puglisi. And the rest is history with the Pen Women. Marion and Donna introduced her to the other members with their talent in writing, jewlery making, and decided it was time to delve into the arts. Barbara now sews, does crafting and has finally learned how to relax. She moved to Melbourne in 2014 after a terrible winter in Wisconsin. Her sister has lived here for over 50 years and Barbara decided it was time to be together more. Barbara has been married to her husband Steve for 47 years, they have 2 children and 6 grandchildren.
Meeting Coordinator
My bio is short! I love crafts and reading, and since joining Pen Women I am writing poems.
Friend
I was born in Syracuse New York and moved to Fort Lauderdale when I was 10 years old. At age 13, I moved to Satellite Beach to live with my aunt and uncle. I attended Eau Gallie Junior High for 9th grade. Courtney and Elaine Stone were family friends, so I got to know Cathy in ninth grade. What a small world now that I am living in Viera we will meet again so many years later. After graduating from Fort Lauderdale high school, I received a bachelor’s in education from Temple University and then a master’s in early childhood education from Westfield State I taught kindergarten and gifted education for several years both in Massachusetts and Florida. I earned an Ed. D from Nova University in 1983 and later received a M. Ed In Counseling/Psychology. My final years in education were spent as a guidance counselor at a performing arts elementary school in Fort Lauderdale. I retired in 1999 to travel extensively and enjoy all the performing arts venues that South Florida has to offer. Some of my favorite trips were to Israel, Australia, and Germany. I’ve enjoyed visiting other cultures and meeting new people. Last August I moved to Viera to be close to my daughter and her family. I’m really enjoying my life here. I joined a book club, attend many activities at One Senior Place, and enjoy taking water aerobics classes. I found you ladies through One Senior Place and I’m very happy to become a Friend!
Friend
Capturing the fleeting beauty of life with a camera or a paintbrush has been a lifelong need for Barbara. She has learned that it may not be there tomorrow… Barbara is self-taught from constantly reading, observing other artists, making notes on scraps of paper, and experimenting. The result is a wide variety of subjects, styles and materials, but she is best known for her use of vivid and, sometimes, unnatural colors, such as a green and blue zebra! Many of her “failed” paintings have been dumped in the tub, soaked, squeezed, torn, and recreated into something new. Artist Sterling Edwards’ phrase “creative restlessness” best describes Barbara. Her recent “Whimsey” series is created by making a story out of marbleized webbing randomly sprayed onto paper. Not only has this challenge expanded her imagination, it has given her many hours of pure joy. As part of the National Art in Public Places Program, her paintings are actively displayed throughout Brevard County, Florida, in city halls, libraries, hospitals, and many other public locations. She is most proud and honored that her painting, “Your Brothers Salute You” is a permanent part of the All Veterans of Brevard’s Traveling Wall which continuously exhibits across the United States. Her painting depicts a solemn, military ceremony with a horse-drawn caisson which bears the body of a veteran in a flag-draped casket. Since retirement from a career in real estate, Barbara has been very involved with the Brevard Watercolor Society (BWS), but is currently affiliated with numerous, professional art groups. She actively enters juried shows and has won a number of awards, including 1st Place in the BWS Splash 2014 annual show. She enjoys sharing her artistic knowledge with others and has given countless demonstrations for BWS, on local cable shows, senior groups, and schools. Her website is www.ArtbyBarbaraRios.com
Friend
Holly W. Schwartztol is a poet, novelist, a retired psychologist and a spiritual intuitive. She grew up in New York City. Her father, James A. Wechsler, was a renowned journalist. Holly attended the Dalton School in Manhattan, after which she graduated from Finch College. She holds a Masters in Psychology from C.W Post College and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Miami. Holly was a school psychologist in Dade County for eleven years. She was in private practice for nearly forty years. In the mid-nineties she and a colleague opened a holistic center in Miami called MIEL. She was president of many professional organizations, including the Dade County Psychological Association (1988) and the Florida Society of Clinical Hypnosis (2001). When Holly was in her fifties, her creative writing began to emerge more fully. She has published three novels since 2005 (Sherry and the Unseen World; What We Tell (2012); and Coming Around Again (2019). She writes poetry, many of which have placed in the Faulkner writing competition and finally published a volume of poetry called Along My Garden Path: Poems on the Rhythms of Life in 2020. Holly’s fictional characters take the lead and guide her to write the story. Her poems nearly fall out of her; rarely does she sit down to “write a poem”. She’s tapped by her muse and must write no matter where she is at any time of day or night. Holly is a past president of the South Florida Writers Association (SWFA). She left Miami over eight years ago. During the pandemic, she was able to attend SWFA on zoom and is now a Director at Large for that group. Holly likes to encourage aspiring writers and teaches memoir writing. This began as a course at the Cape Canaveral Library. When the pandemic hit, her class went to zoom and now she teaches two such classes online. Holly’s psychology background and spiritual studies inform her writing about the intricacies of human relationships and the continuation of consciousness. She lives in Cape Canaveral with her husband. They have three children and five grandchildren. Holly spends leisure time doing jigsaw and crossword puzzles, walking on the beach, swimming, reading and, of course, writing.