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December 6, 2010

Marigem Emde

She brings smiles and happiness through her art and her clowning. Meet the LowerTown gem known as Marigem Emde!

Marigem, you are cute, cute, cute, no doubt about it! Here we go!

I grew up in a small town in Illinois called Camargo. I left at the age of 21 to attend college at Mckendree in Lebanon, Ill.

My major was Biology and minor in Psychology. I loved it all, but to find a job in the field after graduating was difficult. So for many years I worked for doctors in St. Louis, which is where I settled after college. 

I met my husband there in a Methodist Church Choir. He was engaged in playing tuba in the St. Louis Symphony and came to early service choir so he could still go to rehearsals at the symphony. 

We were married in this church in 1956. 

We had a wonderful life. He had two boys by his first marriage — they were 10 and 12 at the time of our marriage. Jim lost his first wife to a cerebral hemorrhage at age 33. 

We lived and loved in St. Louis for eight years, and then Jim got into symphony management. We moved from St. Louis to Baltimore, Baltimore to Omaha, Omaha to Winnipeg, Canada, and Winnipeg to Spokane. Then from Spokane, we went to Olympia, Wash., where Jim became the Assistant Director of the Washington State Arts Commission. 
I, in the meantime, started taking art lessons each place we lived — even while working. In Olympia, I studied the most heavily in art: oil and then into watercolor and then mixed media. It was too much fun!

People began taking notice of my paintings, and I sold some. I set out to learn as much as I could. I enrolled in two art groups and became a member of a gallery and subsequently became president of each group for a time. It was all indeed very fascinating and wonderful. 

My husband passed away in 2004 and I became like a really free bird and could not soak up enough of everything. 

Also in Olympia, I became a clown. I studied with a clown who had graduated from the Barnum and Bailey School. So along with my art, I did clowning — sometimes selling my art at fairs while in clown. 

Through my college alumni I connected with a man with whom I had been sweethearts with in college — and we became an item of sorts having fun and congeniality. He brought me to Paducah, and I fell in love with this place on my first visit.

All I could say was, “I want to live here.” And within a few months I did.

My sweetheart, however, phased out.

I now do watercolor and mixed media along with silkscreen and sculpture. I seem to get more proficient at it each day, and for me this is a source of great accomplishment and pride. 

I clown now mainly at the hospital. It is a way of giving back to the community in which I live.

I also enjoy all things medical and continue to be interested in and curious about how things happen in the medical field. 

My main goal is to cheer and bring smiles, which stimulates healing.   

I have done parades and birthday parties and openings and enjoy such, but my main focus now is bringing smiles and having fun.

I love doing and enjoying things — poetry, good music, nice people, learning all kinds of new things, listening to birds and watching their habitats. I am interested in people who do these same things. 

I love traveling and seeing what is new and interesting in towns of all sizes. I find fun and enjoyment in all people wherever I go. 

My attitude is positive and when encountering negativity I can be sympathetic but shy away from dwelling on such.  Life is too important and wonderful to bring myself down to such levels. 

I have had my share of hurt and disappointment as we all have, but I pick myself up by the bootstraps and say “onward” and expect a miracle. It will happen. 

I have had several miracles in my life and believe in Angels and all good things. 

My art is an expression of all of my life, fun and heartwarming and loving.  It is abstract, but sometimes impressionistic. And it is just me. That is all I can be, is just me.