What you create for today matters infinitely more to produce a
beautiful texture for the future. We have choices in our
life, our careers, and our purpose.
Be special, be anything but mediocre is the title work on of one of Carol Eacret-Simmons art work, on display in a New Zealand International Collage Exhibition.
Carol Eacret-Simmons is a living inspirational story to anyone who have ever yearned for
something more than mediocrity, reaching for something more special
than your present reality.
To anyone that had come to believe that they were too (insert limiting belief here) to live their dreams. It is never too late to start living your dreams. You are never given a perfect inspirational dream, without the equal capability to make it happen, even if it defies all statistical odds! Odds, for the special person are only made to
be defied, challenged, and transformed.
Many parents face the reality of empty nest syndrome and the life
changes that this implies. Suddenly adjusting to a very different
pace, noise level, and activity when the last child leaves home, Carol
went back to school to see what she might study that would hold her
interest from her quiet country life in the midwest. While her
husband Mahlon was finally starting to count the years before
retirement, when they could finally enjoy their lives, perhaps travel,
arts and music for inspiration... Carol took a few art classes for
inspiration. The sleeping giant of a dream started to stir
within.. a possibility of inspiration emerged. .
What is she doing all this full time school stuff for? What does she
think she is going to do? Many people watched as she amassed more
art shows, talents, and stories. At her graduation from Illinois
State University some had the nerve to ask "if she was done" yet.
To do a trial retirement run in celebration of her graduation,
Mahlon and Carol did their first trip together ever outside the United
States, in an artists study in France. Mahlon and Carol walking
the picturesque French art and culture together.
Then it was off to work on her Masters. For the first time in her
life, Carol took residency outside of her family, in Kansas. Now the
critics were really perplexed. Okay they have been married for nearly 3
decades, Mahlon is retiring in a year, and what the heck is Carol
doing? What could she possibly want to do with an advanced
degree?
Her family drove from Colorado and Illinois to Carol's Masters
Art Show in Kansas
State University right before graduation. Mahlon and Carol
did a second artists study in Scotland in a Castle Artists
Retreat. Each trip creating more inspiration, a deeper rooted
dream, and a life connected to enriching lives through art.
Mahlon had taken an early retirement, and all seemed to fall in place.
While the wagering had now begun that clearly Carol's midlife crisis is
not subsiding, wagers probably started cropping up regarding what was
going to happen. Scotland produced an amazing series of arts,
experiences, and a partnership at last based upon just enjoying your
surroundings and expressing that connection to all that is around
you.
She and Mahlon took residency - selling their home of almost 2
decades to move to North Dakota in support of her first professional
work, Carol
Eacret Simmons accepted her dream job of Teaching Art and Gallery Director
at Dickinson State University. Her
artwork has been exhibited in permanent
collections of the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage, and
Construction in Cuernavaca, Mexico; University of the Arts Printmaking
Gallery in Philadelphia, Pa.; and Illinois State University Bone
Student Center. She has
found and raised her voice and art to express the environment, the
cultural, and the empowerment of renaissance living!
She is active on the North Dakota Arts
Alliance/Alliance for Arts Education is dedicated to
the promotion of the arts for all citizens of North Dakota. She
recently exhibited at the Ruddell
Gallery with two of her fellow artists originally from Illinois
State,. Dave Wilson and Donovan Widmer in an exhibition titled "1,000
Miles from Normal".
| “Like most artists, I tend to work in series. Most of my work is influenced by nature and my deep concern for the environment." “I was drawn to the irony of painting something as large as a constellation on a small canvas, and then painting a butterfly wing or flower petal on a large one. This upsetting of micro/macro equilibrium led me to display the paintings as if they were bouncing around the gallery – like a world gone mad.” ~ Carol Eacret Simmons. |
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