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AT HOME
"This is a reference to The Odyssey. Remember when the sailors had to put the wax in their ears so they wouldn’t listen to the sirens, because if they went on the wrong path they’d be turned into slothful pigs? So it's a reminder of two things. First, don’t eat too much at this table, but also, follow your dream and don’t be slothful." “He cut the tree down and you can see where the initial chainsaw went into the trunk, and then he made planks out of it.” Betty pointed to the legs and remembered, “One morning, I was over at his house and I asked if he could make a leg like this. He went downstairs, then 15 minutes later, he came up with this. And then another 15, 15, 15. It was just amazing, the work that he did.” Betty, who sits on the Washington Pavilion’s collections committee, began acquiring art in college, and only later found one of her passions was collecting work by female artists. “We had a chance to buy from our college museum and that was when I acquired my first piece, which was this watercolor,” she said, motioning a wall in the main floor guest bedroom. “It’s not by a woman, but later, when I had my first job in 1974, I had a discussion with one of the other lawyers about female sportspeople, because it was just at the time when women were starting to come into their own. He made the comment that there were no good female artists, and I said, ‘I know you’re wrong. I know it. Let’s get together in 25 years and see.’ So in the meantime, I thought, ‘That’s a niche.’” She says her favorite is Joyce Treiman. “She’s a fabulous draftsman. She is quirky and spontaneous and quite accurate and there’s quite a bit of spirit in her work. You look at the woman and ask, ‘What is she telling us?’” Betty says her advice to anyone looking to build their collection in a cohesive, affordable way is to find a niche of their own - something that interests them, that might lead to pieces everyone isn’t after. Works on paper tend to be less expensive to collect, as well. She says her group at the Pavilion is available to help guide the public through that process. Much of her collection is by women, but there is work created by both genders - local and world-famous - on the walls. Although, Betty explains, the private life of many pieces is coming to an end. “I gave most of my art collection to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois - and I’m sending off a lot of it now to Oberlin, which was my alma mater. These are all James Whistler,” she said, motioning to a series of sketches in the hallway. “This is a Rembrandt. I’ll probably keep these, because I love them.” After brief stops in the three art-filled bedrooms, we enter the living room, which serves as a showplace for some of the pieces created by local artists, including Betty. Portraits of Woody and herself hang in a place of prominence near the piano.