our art: MARILYN BRUMLEY
Marilyn Brumley —
The Art of the Full Life
By MEL W RHODES
F
rom her first lesson as a girl of six
until now, art has had a hold on
81-year-old Marilyn Brumley. In fact,
she’d have a hard time imagining her
life without it.
“When I don’t do my art for
a period of time, I get down with
myself,” she said. “It’s just like if I
didn’t eat, you know. My body needs
it to stay in balance. It’s a positive
part of me. I firmly believe in posi-
tive and negative thinking; and my
artwork is my positive thinking.”
Marilyn, at least in part, credits
her parents for her love of art.
“As I said, I had my first lesson at
six,” she explained. “My mother and
dad realized that at that age I really
liked to draw and color and stuff — I
mean I’d get so excited over a box of
Crayolas! And I still love Crayolas. It
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was just something that they tapped
into.”
Her parents supported her artistic
proclivities, and after the war when
the family returned to hometown Fort
Worth from Chicago, Marilyn’s mom
arranged for the young artist, then
nine, to take lessons in oil painting.
“That’s the way I made my spend-
ing money all the time I was growing
up, in high school and everything,”
Marilyn said. “I had great parents.
They didn’t try to make me into
something I wasn’t.”
As Marilyn found her way along
art’s path, she delved into various
mediums including watercolors, oils,
china painting, murals, stained glass
and mosaic glasswork, even decora-
tive pillows. She also spent time,
years, in the classroom.
“My husband was a helicopter