Elizabeth Eisen~Cheryl Gage~Bonnie Loeh~Michele Missner~Antoinette Powell~Valerie Magno

What do these six women have in common? They are or were librarians and they are artists! Their backgrounds and artistic styles vary widely. Here’s a sneak preview.

Elizabeth Eisen, Community Services Librarian, Appleton Public Library

Elizabeth was surrounded by an entire family of artists and artwork while growing up. It was a normal activity to sit around and draw and color. She often visited art galleries and museums and was exposed to a wide variety of artwork. It was a “natural” to major in art. Most of her undergraduate and graduate work was completed as a non-traditional student while she and her husband raised their three sons and a daughter. Once the children were grown she decided to return to her artwork with a renewed intensity. Her artwork is often whimsical and colorful in nature. Elizabeth likes to work in a variety of mediums including acrylics, colored pencils, art markers, India ink, and printmaking. Inspiration often comes from interesting dreams, trips, or family photographs. Sometimes childhood memories and family dogs and cats will creep into the picture. She admires the works of Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, David Hockney, and the late Joan Brown.

Cheryl Gage, Assistant Director, Fond du Lac Public Library

Cheryl has worked for Fond du Lac Public Library for 24 years. She is a self-taught artist and works in oil and watercolor painting, and mosaics. Most recently she has expanded her artistry to create whimsical, one-of-a kind painted furniture pieces. “I mix art with functionality. I painted an old chair to look like a slice of watermelon. I call it My Melon-choly Baby. It adds a bright touch of whimsy to the kitchen.” She finds old pieces of furniture at garage sales and gives them new life. She is very active in the Wisconsin Regional Artists Association (WRAA) and has organized regional exhibits for over 15 years. She has received the esteemed John Steuart Curry Award from WRAA for her work in promoting art.

Bonnie Loeh, Retired Librarian, Appleton Area School District

“Art begins with color” whether Bonnie is painting a picture, dyeing fabric, making jewelry, or knitting scarves. Bonnie became interested in art in 1990 while viewing The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross on PBS. She took classes in oil and watercolor painting. Bonnie likes to start without a sketch so she doesn’t feel compelled to “stay within the lines.” She rarely knows what the finished piece will look like. Bonnie started working with fabric in the mid 90s sewing dyed scarves and designing purses. She meets with a group of artists twice a month. They visit galleries and museums and take art classes together. She feels this has encouraged her creative spirit. She has thoroughly enjoyed her artistic journey and can’t wait to see where it next takes her.

Michele Missner, Retired Librarian, Appleton Area School District

Michele has always been interested in art and painted and drew as a child. She minored in art history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but it was not until she moved to Wisconsin that she began to develop as an artist. Missner met Tom Brady, a professor of art at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh when she and her husband first moved to the area in 1969. Missner wanted to attend art classes and was encouraged by Tom Brady to audit his advanced woodcut class. For several years Missner did woodcuts.

Her two children were born in the early 1970s. During this time she took a few oil painting classes but it was not until the late 1980s that Missner began to paint in watercolor seriously. She took a summer class at the Paine Art Center and her love for watercolor was born. What Missner loves about the medium is its mysteriousness, how the color flow and mix, and that it allows for a great deal of experimentation. Michele enjoys realism and abstract painting using collage, and Yupo paper. She has studied at workshops with nationally known watercolor artists.

Antoinette Powell, Music Librarian/Assistant Professor, Lawrence University

Antoinette joined the Lawrence Library faculty in July of 2002 after 14 years in various library positions at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Trained as a pianist and vocal accompanist,she was awarded her Bachelor of Music degree from St. Norbert College, did graduate work in music history at UW-Milwaukee, and received her Master of Library Science degree at the University of Pittsburgh. A Wisconsin native, Antoinette grew up in West Allis and has been quilting for over 20 years.

Valerie Magno, Librarian, Lawrence University

Valerie has a background in Science but considers herself a "generalist" when it comes to consumption of information. She was raised in Montana, gaining her undergraduate degrees in Biology and in Modern Languages, (German option). She obtained her M.A. in Botany in 1995 from the University of Texas at Austin. She decided to pursue a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and started volunteering in the Geology Library. As a student in the GSLIS department at the University of Texas at Austin, Valerie worked in academic libraries and interned at 3M. She earned her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science in 1997 and worked at Motorola, as a Librarian, before leaving Austin. Valerie enjoys creating drawings, paintings, photographs, poetry, and short stories.