Akron Life September 2022

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[ Managing Editor | Kelly Petryszyn | kpetryszyn@bakermediagroup.com ]

Right Angle

Art classes can help you find a lifelong passion.

teaches a similar course at The University of Akron. Others have always known what their thing was, like late Canton painter Gerry Bernhardt who grew up constantly drawing and painting and took classes any chance she got. See work by Ippoliti and Bernhardt in our fall exhibit guide on pg. 22 of our annual arts issue. It only took a few classes for me to become an avid shutterbug. I loved the thrill of seeing the image appear in the fixer as we developed film in the darkroom. I recently found albums from those days and chuck led at my amateur photos of our backyard garden and family members dramatically posed by the stairs. But as I studied, I learned that candidly photographing people was my true love. Once in a while, I would take a shot that captured life and a person’s essence, like one depicting my best friend’s niece laughing midair on a swing. In college, photographing people became my focus. I covered myriad subjects like a pair draped in an American flag at the 10th anni versary 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. For a World War II portrait series, I got the very meaningful opportunity to photograph my aunt’s father, Al Callahan, a WWII veteran, not long before he died. After school, photography has played dif ferent roles throughout my life. At my first job at the Morning Journal newspaper, I followed the police scanner to photograph drug busts, car accidents and house fires. In my personal life, I’ve had the privilege of photographing my brother’s and sister’s proposals, and for the latter, I hid in Deer Lick Cave behind a rock and ran out as my

now-brother-in-law popped the question. But as I’ve gotten busier, I’ve left the cam era behind more often than not. Bernhardt’s story resonated with me. She had always been creative, but money and timing often stopped her from pursuing her dreams. So she sketched at night and did side projects throughout her working years while supporting a family. She finally painted full time when she retired, produc ing thousands of works from ages 65 to 75. “Women who wear so many different hats still find time to make work and do art for themselves because they have that burning desire within them to create,” says Christy Davis, the Canton Museum of Art curator of exhibitions who curated the exhibit of Bernhardt’s work. “It makes it very attain able for someone who may feel overwhelmed by all of life’s demands and struggles — you can still find relief doing these things.” It’s so refreshing to hear her story because the older I get, the more I feel life is about seasons. In some seasons you have less time for hobbies and in others, they take center stage. As a new mother, photography — aside from adorable baby pics — is on the back burner, but it’s a passion that can be reignited at any time. Both the Akron and Canton art museums were originally institutes of arts and still offer art classes. Davis urges people to try them, adding that we all have creativity and need to find our own way of expressing ourselves. “If anyone says they’re not an artist … they just haven’t found the right fit for them, but it does exist,” she says. “I hope it inspires people to take classes, learn and expand their artistic abilities.”

photo by Kelly Petryszyn

If you look closely at photos of me at events or on trips, I often have a Canon DSLR camera strap around my neck. For a while, it was almost routine for me to bring a camera any time we went to a zoo, wedding, hike or any other photo-worthy occasions. Among friends and fam ily members, I became known as the girl with the fancy camera. It started with me taking a Cuyahoga Community College course on darkroom black-and-white film photography. I ran domly chose it to fill time during an open high school summer, but it quickly became a deep passion. My brother-in-law lent me his film SLR. What was supposed to be a short loan turned into years of fascination with film photography and led to me minoring in photojournalism at Kent State University. Sometimes taking a class is all you need to open the door to creativity. That’s how it happened for Akron sculptor Drew Ippoliti, who took a ceramics class on a whim and knew he found his medium. Now he

[ Managing Editor Kelly Petryszyn is an adventure seeker, forever a dreamer and an avid supporter of #TeamFiona. ]

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