My City May 2022

“SUNSET ON SUPERIOR”

LEFT: “SANDHILL CRANES WITH TWIN COLTS”

BELOW: “COLOR EXPLOSION”

Not enjoying the long daily commute to the city, she worked for three years in New Jersey as a graphic designer and illustrator. “I discovered I was quite mar ketable because I could do design and drawings and illustrations,” she remem bers. She then married her husband Bob Booher, and the couple moved to his hometown of Flint in 1984. Her family owned a busi ness in Flint, the former Willing Glass Company. Willing-Booher then started her own art studio doing a lot of graphic and design work for hospitals and businesses, winning them many awards. “I had a ton of work in Flint,” the artist shares, including the former Flint Osteo pathic Hospital, Genesys and McLaren Hospitals and General Motors, to name just a few. She was asked by the Greater

Flint Art Council to do a solo exhibit about people working in the Flint area. “‹is got me more into Œne arts,” she remembers. Willing-Booher has worked with a variety of mediums but especially enjoys watercolors. “It’s a bit magical,” she shares. “You mix it and never know exactly what you are going to get. I love the uncertainty of it – just letting it work on its own.”

For the last several years, the artist has spent a lot of time painting, teaching and exhibiting her work. A past pres ident of the Michigan Water Color Society, she recently stepped down as president of the National Water Color Society to immediate past presi dent, which was a con siderable undertaking. “I learned a lot in the process,” she admits. 

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