ARTIST AND PUPPETMAKER
Marcia Brewster first worked in pen and ink as a commercial illustrator. She began sidelining in pastels several years ago, works in water color, acrylics, and oils, and now some 25-foot puppets.
The most exciting moment was her first pastel show, in 1990, "because I didn't know how it would go over," she said. "I was fairly new, and had only been painting in pastels for a year. I was working almost full time and doing the pastels at home. And I sold about 9 paintings right off. That encouraged me to do more."
"More" includes illustrated maps for St Albans and Franklin County and then for Chittenden County. Each map is watercolor on pen and ink with hand calligraphy. Marcia draws the precise illustrations of skiing and skiers, the Lake and Champ, and forests of trees in the same scale as the finished map. Bennett Dawson also gave her full reign to do artwork for the Franklin County Brewery. She was pleased not to do it on a computer. Craft brewery art is always hand work and handwritten lettering.
Marcia may be most famous in this area for the 25-foot puppets at Hudak Farm in Swanton. "We thought we would do something that was earthy-oriented, so I started with the Green Man, a Celtic figure of regeneration, and then gave him a spouse." Marcia crafted his hair from oak leaves and his body of hemlock boughs. The woman's hair sparkles from the tiny shiny seeds at the end of a bristle of broom corn. Their faces were papier mƒch‚ and acrylic paints. She started the puppets for fun, but they grew on her. "Now I have to do more," she said.
Like so many other artists in this area, Marcia also has a day job. Socializing with real people is vital to an artist and the income helps, too. "It's an important thing," she said. "Getting out in the mainstream is crucial."
Marcia was raised in an artist colony in New Hope, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a sculptor and a painter. "I moved here and raised four kids before I got back into my art," she said. She lives in East Fairfield with husband Kingman, a farrier.
Many of the AAC profiles first appeared in the County Courier, the St Albans Messenger, and online in ArtBits on this site, in the Arts and Entertainment section of VermontNOW magazine, and on Themestream.com
All Arts Council of Franklin County
Dick Harper, Chair
P.O. Box 1
Highgate Springs, VT 05460
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