Sometimes the moniker “artist” seems diametrically opposed to “practical.” But my former next-door neighbor and good friend, Stefanie Graves, has managed to achieve the best of both worlds.
Stefanie always had a passion for art, but her practical side heeded her mother’s advice: it’s hard to make a living as an artist. So, she headed to Indiana University’s school of nursing.
Her career neatly fits into three parts—part one as a nurse, part two as a healthcare manager, and part three as an artist.
She became a nurse in 1979, graduating from Indiana University school of nursing. She worked in a couple large hospitals in Indianapolis doing general medicine/surgery before getting her graduate degree nine years later. She graduated from Boston University with an MBA and healthcare management degree in 1988.
Part Three
Stef and her husband, David Lucht, established Cowango Studio as part of the Lower Town Artists Relocation program. (Dave, also an artist, specializes in batik.)
For the past several years, she also worked as a nurse at Mercy Health-Lourdes Hospital. But, recently retired and has returned to painting fulltime.
In my opinion, nursing was a career that allowed her to flex another quality she embodies. Compassion.
And I think it’s her compassion that makes her such a good artist.
She primarily works in watercolor and has painted scenes from all over the world. (You’ll want to come back to the blog to hear about her fabulous travels!) The painting above is called Bali Idols. It’s a scene Stefanie photographed as she and Dave walked through the countryside in Bali. The animals are part of the working cows you see in the rice fields there, hence the rope through the nostril.
Right Now…
Currently, she’s working on a solo exhibition of fifty women’s portraits focusing on women’s accomplishments.
“Regardless of what we’ve done, women’s looks are still the focus,” she says. “How we look, our outward appearance, remains the key to how we are viewed. The idea of the exhibition came to me from a post on FaceBook by a young female cousin of Dave’s who is athletic and does a fair amount of rock climbing, bicycling, and weightlifting. After posting pictures of a recent vacation where she and her husband did a lot of technical climbing, the first comment was, ‘You’re so pretty!’ It brought home to me how frequently I see this kind of reaction to women’s pictures, even when the post is about a monumental event, such as graduation or a new job.”
Stefanie launched her project with a portrait of Julie Zickefoose, a naturalist, illustrator, author, and bird rehabilitation specialist from Marietta, OH. Julie writes a blog about her home, rehab work, and life in southeastern Ohio. Stefanie has followed it almost from its inception in 2004. (Here’s a link to it.)
She received a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and, since she anticipates this project will take around five years, she’ll be looking for more funding to offset the costs of supplies, travel, and framing. Once complete, she hopes to show the exhibition at university galleries and museums.
Go Ahead…
Head over to Stefanie’s website to see more of her work. You can sign up for her blog there, too, and learn more about her adventures in art.
Stefanie Graes
Thanks, Tracey, for highlighting me and my adventures in your blog! I am truly honored.
Tracey Buchanan
Thank YOU! My pleasure!