Alumna Finds Purpose in Second Career as an Artist
In 2012, when she was 60 years old, Ruth Parker Lefko 鈥�74 retired from teaching kindergarten through fourth grade at multiple schools throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Her teaching career, for which her Elementary Education major at Pfeiffer College had prepared her, was meaningful, but she was ready to pursue a new line of work.
She began painting prolifically, building a following and connecting with people all over via her . She reignited an interest in making art that had lain largely dormant for 37 years while she taught, and while she and her husband Carl Lefko 鈥�76, also a Pfeiffer alumnus, raised two daughters. Carl, whom she met as a student at Pfeiffer, is the son of Nick Lefko 鈥�37, who coached soccer at Pfeiffer from 1959-74.
鈥淧ainting has always been a part of me, but I had to put it on the back burner,鈥� Ruth Lefko said recently from her home in Christiansburg, Va, near where her husband taught technical theatre at Radford University. 鈥淣ow, I鈥檓 motivated to get up and do it every day. I have a purpose. This is my purpose now.鈥�
That purpose has also included managing galleries, teaching other painters, and serving as the Co-Vice President of the . It began to emerge when Lefko, who originally hails from New London, N.C., began taking private art lessons as a teenager. She majored in art for one year at Brevard College, then transferred to Pfeiffer.
By that time, she had decided to focus on preparing for a career in elementary education, having concluded that painting would not pay the bills. She has happy memories of her student days at Pfeiffer and called the late Dr. Phyllis Gore Houghton a 鈥渨onderful person.鈥� Houghton directed Education at Pfeiffer for many years.
When she was teaching elementary school children, Lefko 鈥渄ragged鈥� herself out of bed early to do it. Now, on most days, she rises enthusiastically at 4 a.m. to paint in her home studio. Painting has become such an important part of her life that if a week goes by without her doing it, she begins to feel irritable. If she and her husband go on a trip, she makes painting a part of the journey.
Lefko describes her painting process as an 鈥渆motional鈥� experience, one in which several pieces are in development. Unlike many of her painter colleagues, who tend to work on one piece until it鈥檚 done, Lefko likes to revisit paintings she鈥檚 set aside and look at them with fresh eyes.
鈥淢aybe I could do this to that, or I could do that to that,鈥� she said, describing the thinking behind her creative process. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 want to do it, you trust your gut not to do it.鈥�
Lefko has developed a good sense of what she鈥檚 all about as an artist. She has come to embrace what she calls 鈥渢he element of surprise, which is big for me.鈥� Her includes abstracts, portraits of animals, seascapes, still lifes, florals, and landscapes. She now prefers creating vibrant non-representational fare while occasionally accepting commissions to paint real-world subject matter in line with a client鈥檚 wishes. 鈥淚 could paint pet portraits, but it鈥檚 not what brings me as much joy as just going in there and moving the paint around and letting the paint do the work,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 prefer to paint for myself. And then that makes it even nicer when somebody else appreciates it and wants it.鈥�
This article was written for 黑料专区 by Ken Keuffel.