By Suzanne Waring
Sherry Tuss has enjoyed art since childhood. She savors every moment that she is either teaching or doing her own artwork.
Tuss was raised and lives in Great Falls, Montana. Graduating from Great Falls High School and the College of Great Falls, she majored in elementary education with a minor in art. She credits her teachers from grade school through college for encouraging her.
Her parents also urged her to develop her skills. When she was five years old, she drew a spider on the wall above her bed. When her mother saw it, she at first attempted to swat the spider. Only then did she recognize that it was a drawing. Amazed that the spider looked so realistic, she complimented Sherry but also made her scrub it off.
As a child, Sherry watched her father draw and paint. Years later, she felt a sense of accomplishment when her father took lessons from her.
During her career as a teacher of art education, she taught in the Great Falls Public Schools, in one of the parochial schools, and at Vaughn while “stopping out” periodically to have and raise three children. When they were grown and divorce found its way into her life, she made a big change. She went to Las Vegas to teach art in grades K-5.
A method that she used to teach drawing was to show the students a picture and tell them they were going to do “drawalongs.” Starting simply, she would make several lines on the white board. The students would make the same lines on their papers. As she and the students progressed, they learned how to draw each part of the picture. When the lesson was over, the students had a recognizable drawing. Their faces showed that they were very proud of what they had accomplished.
While Tuss was teaching in Las Vegas, she had the opportunity to teach Art History, Principles of Art, and Cultures of the World to her elementary students. When the students studied the Asian Pacific Culture, she asked them if someone in the family had a Hawaiian shirt. The kids brought numerous shirts to school. Using the shirts’ designs, they drew the bold and intricate floral patterns, ocean elements, and other traditional Polynesian designs. During “drawalongs” when they studied the work of Leonardo da Vinci, she drew the Mona Lisa” with them—all except the mouth. She told the students to draw the mouth the way they imagined it to be. The outcome was a wide variety of expressions. When the parents saw the pictures during parents’ night at the school, they laughed and pointed at the pouts, sneers, scowls, smiles and frowns on the faces of the drawings.
She also taught her students how to draw their self-portrait, which was an assignment each year. This showed their parents their improvement as the progressed through the grades.
While in Las Vegas, Tuss earned a master’s degree in art education from the University of Las Vegas.
After fifteen years, Tuss returned to Great Falls. As soon as she could find a studio, she started teaching watercolor to adults. “I love sharing my art, and I love teaching it”. Nothing pleases me more than to know when students have framed their paintings to give as gifts,” Tuss said.
Recently she and her significant other have built a new home. A large room with natural lighting at one end of the house is her studio. As soon as the entrance to that room is finished, her students will come to her house to take lessons. Presently she is teaching in different students’ homes.
Tuss sells her art at the local Farmers’ Market. She purchased a van so that attending the market is convenient for her to set up, display the items for sale, and take down each Saturday. Putting up a canopy to keep the elements out and to protect her paintings is the arduous part of the set up.
Selling her work has brought about learning the skill of marketing her art. That entails getting her work ready as a part of her work week. She has found that she should paint pictures the size that can be framed as well as miniature paintings. Prints of paintings are popular too.
A void in the art market in Montana that Tuss fills is to paint watercolors of people’s pets, especially those that have passed away. Her business name for this aspect of her work is Perfectly Preserved Pet Portraits. The pet owner who wants a painting gives Tuss a photograph to draw from. Pet owners enjoy the artistic touch that she puts into each painting, especially the eyes. As she says, “The eyes are the window to the soul.”
“I love every day. I wake up in the morning and think about the exciting things I plan to do. I may teach that day or prepare my art for the market. I take time to actually paint during a week. My favorite medium is watercolor, and in my paintings I depict Montana in all its beauty. I’m ready to jump out of bed and get going,” Tuss said.
And it’s remarkable that at age eighty, Tuss continues to use her artistic skills to produce an income. MSN
