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History
People tell me that "Iowa is a state of mind," and for me, I guess that is true. I was raised there as a Decker. I tell people now that I live in Troy, Ohio; but I am quick to add, "but I was born and raised in Iowa!" I have been in Ohio twenty years now but I am still a true Midwestern farm girl at heart. I was raised in Eastern Iowa, smack dab between Cedar Rapids and Clinton, on US HW 30. My dad milked holsteins and proclaimed truisms like: speak up, be honest, try your hardest, your name is your bond, don't accept a job if you're not going to do it right, etc. Mom was a creative woman and nurturing. She worked in her garden and put her kids first in her life. My brother Bill was only a year-and-a-half older and we did everything together. We have always been close. Lowden, the town we lived near, had only six hundred and forty-two citizens at the time. There were only twenty-one in my high school class. I was good at English and History but my brother had to help me through Math. Art didn't even exist in the curriculum offered. Mom tried to encourage me but we were far from museums and enrichment programs. I grew up thinking I would be a nurse or an elementary teacher, much like all baby boomer women who came into young adulthood in the early sixties! I felt very average and I didn't even know I had artistic skills. |
Growing Up
- I should have known, when my favorite way to play was to make mud sculptures...
- I remember the first art print I ever saw, in 4-H Club; it was Mary Cassatt's "After the Bath."
- I won a poster contest in the 8th grade and got to be on WMT, channel 2. The topic was "Corn Picker Safety."
- I was tactile, so much so that I ruined my Easter bonnet when I rubbed oil paint from Mom's "paint by number kit" on the white straw hat. I was not "rewarded."
- I saved every scrap of ribbon, fabric and buttons to create my own fashions for my dolls.
- I liked making bulletin boards for the teachers for extra credit and the only unit in physics I remember was color properties.
College and Beyond
So off I went to the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, fully intending to major in elementary education. Luckily, I took the general requirement course, art fundamentals, my first semester. (That was the fall of 1963, and on my eighteenth birthday J. F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was in the art building when I heard of his death.) Toward the end of the semester, I got a call at the dorm from my art professor, Dr. David Delwich, asking me to come to his office later that week. I was petrified, but I went. He asked me what was my major and encouraged me to think about an art major instead. I said I would change it if I knew I was good enough, but I had had no professional person in my life, prior to that moment, to encourage me. He did. I walked across campus and registered a change of major that day! I never regretted it. Thank goodness for a teacher who really cares about their students!
UNI gave students a strong emphasis in the humanities and it was the philosophy of the art department that an art educator had to also be a practicing artist if they were going to be a strong educator of the arts. I took that to heart, and from the time I graduated in 1967 with a BA, I continued to create . . . while I taught, married, and raised a family. The children, Mark and Sarah, were born in Iowa. While they were little, I was home with them, but my husband encouraged me to pursue my MA at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City. I finished that in 1987 while teaching part time at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa.
Teaching
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Pattonville R-3, Maryland Heights, St. Louis County, MO
- Burlington, Iowa
- Linn-Mar, Marion, Iowa
- Elida Local Schools, Elida, Ohio
- Troy City Schools, Troy, Ohio
- Edison Community College, Piqua, Ohio
- The Ohio State University, Lima Campus
- The Ohio Partnership for Visual Arts with the Getty Foundation and the Anneberg Partnership
I met my husband Ron when I first began teaching. During our long marriage we have lived in Iowa, Missouri and Ohio. I have taught elementary, middle school and high school art in all three states. Most of it was secondary level. I also became one of the first art educators to pass National Board Certification in 1997. Ron has always been supportive of my teaching and my art. In fact, we complement each other's skills, as he is a furniture builder and tin smith. After thirty-three years of teaching, I have retired from Troy High School in the spring of 2008. I feel that as an artist I have been holding my breath under water. Now, with the time to work full time to create, I can exhale.
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