March 30, 2006
UW alum’s art shines at University House at Issaquah
Betty Stansbery graduated from the UW in 1938 with a major in art and a minor in drama, but she had already been creating art long before her college years and has kept it up ever since. She’ll turn 89 in August.
Several paintings by Stansbery are being featured in a large exhibit at University House at Issaquah, a retirement community affiliated with the UW Retirement Association, where Stansbery lives. In all, art works by 15 resident artists are included in the first of three planned exhibits this year. This exhibit will remain up through May 2.
Recalling her artistic beginnings, Stansbery said, “I probably had the biggest collection of paper dolls and clothes any little kid ever had.” Her interest in art stayed strong through her years at Seattle’s Queen Anne High School, too.
After earning her UW degree, Stansbery — still going by her maiden name of Betty Racine — stayed at the UW for a few more years, working in the School of Drama’s highly admired puppetry program. This was during the days of Glenn Hughes’ tenure at the UW (“He was great,” Stansbery said).
She staged plays, painted sets, designed costumes and worked with the puppetry program’s touring company. “I was property mistress for one of the shows, A Piece of Paper,” she said. “And we had to hide all these pieces of paper (on the set) so they’d be found.” She even acted a little bit, taking a part occasionally when someone else dropped out of a play.
She married John “Jack” Stansbery in 1944. In all, she said, her husband served three years in the Pacific Theater during World War II. She remembered fondly, “He had one thing he was bound and determined about: He lived in a tent for three years and he was not going camping!” He worked for Standard Oil, and died in 1976.
The couple had three children — two boys and a girl — and moved to Bellingham, then to Bellevue, where Stansbery’s art continued. “When we settled here I started going to the Bellevue Parks Department and they had a painting class.” The instructor died soon after, however. Stansbery took over and taught the class herself for a couple of years. Her work also has been featured in several other exhibits, including at the North Shore Senior Center.
Stansbery said she works mostly in watercolors, but uses pastel and acrylic as well. Many of her paintings have been of images seen and photographed during her travels. She has visited the Holy Land, Italy, Korea and Australia, among other locations, taking snapshots she later uses as the basis for paintings.
One of her paintings shows the patterns of light and shade and the climbing stairways of the Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico, but Stansbery unwittingly pushed the limits of the law to get it. She explained with a chuckle, “We drove up there and parked and I got my camera out and took a picture. Then I looked down at a sign that said ‘No photographs,’ and I hid my camera right away.”
One of her favorite locations to paint, Stansbery said, is the Oregon coast, “where there are these big rocky things out in the water. I’ve done Haystack Rock so many times I feel like I’m part of the haystack!”
She told of a certain detail worth looking for in one of her paintings (seen at the right with Stansbery standing alongside). “We were on our way to the Holy Land and had almost an hour in Venice while waiting to go on board ship,” she said. There was a big doorway with a gondola in front, and she and a friend snapped pictures from different sides of the scene. “I didn’t realize there was a nun there until I had the (photograph) printed. And since she was in the photo I thought I’d better put her in the painting, too.” That nun can be seen on the right side of the painting.
Stansbery has the full support of Charlotte Buell, who curates the art shows at University House at Issaquah. “She definitely captured the places that she’s traveled and the beauty of those places” Buell said.
Stansbery said she paints mostly “landscapes and sea scenes” rather than portraits, and has sold a few paintings over the years, but has many left on hand. “I have hundreds of paintings. I have a cabinet just filled with them. I don’t know what to do with them all.” But in recent years her painting has slowed, she said, because she is losing her eyesight. “Nothing seems to turn out like I want it to.”
Still, she has always taken pride in her work. “I’ve been pleased with quite a few of them,” she said. “And I’ve been surprised at what people like.”
Stansbery is quick to praise her fellow artists in the show. “We have 15 in all, sculptures, ceramics stuff, beautiful quilts. The lady who does the weaving is a master at it.” And she says she enjoys living at University House. “It’s a great place to live, and besides which, I don’t have to clean house!”
Of the exhibit, Stansbery — ever the artist — said, “I think it’s great. I’m glad they decided to listen to me when I suggested they do it.”
