In Memory of Nancy Wesorick
March 13, 1952 - February 6, 2025
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Nancy was a doodler from an early age. She grew up along the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where her awareness and curiosity drew her to enjoy nature. She also loved to finger paint and create “masterpieces” with crayons. Later, her mother taught her to paint using Japanese techniques and sent her to art classes.
Her mother introduced fine art to Nancy, who loved the works of Rembrandt and Monet, and gave her every opportunity to visit museums and art galleries during the family's travels. Nancy’s first recollection of fine art, at the age of ten, was at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was fascinated by the work of Georges Seurat and wondered how anyone “could have the patience to make all those dots. " As she matured, she found the works of the Impressionists, Robert Bateman, and Steve Hanks fascinating and beautiful. She continued her love of drawing and art as a hobby. However, her career was in Science Education where she worked with middle schoolers imparting her love of the natural world. Nancy has traveled with her husband, Jim, to many locations including Africa, Japan, Central and South America and Europe where she experienced the beauty and culture of many environments and civilizations. Nancy Wesorick, a beloved and energetic member, passed away on February 6, 2025. She actively participated in all our activities until her health declined. Nancy will be greatly missed. |
In Memory of Karen Bright
April 2, 1942 – March 31, 2022
Karen Mildred Bright, age 79, of Tucson, Arizona passed away on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Karen was born April 2, 1942.
Agraveside service for Karen will be held Monday, April 11, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary, 719 North 27th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85009.
Karen Mildred Bright, age 79, of Tucson, Arizona passed away on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Karen was born April 2, 1942.
Agraveside service for Karen will be held Monday, April 11, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary, 719 North 27th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85009.
In Memory of Carol Giordano |
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Day of the Dead
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Carol was born in Syracuse, NY, on Sept. 25, 1947, and passed away on October 28, 2021, from complications of COVID 19.
Carol was born and lived in the Syracuse New York area. 51 years ago, she married Sam Giordano and after spending one year serving in the military in Clovis, New Mexico, they return to Syracuse where they had one son. Most of Carol's career was as the bookkeeper for the Catholic Church. Once retiring they moved to Green Valley where they have lived for the last 12 years. In addition to her membership in the Tucson Pastel Society, Carol was an active member of the Santa Rita Art League where she was Membership Chair and also wrote the newsletter for the league. Carol will be remembered as a kind, caring and loving person. Her sense of humor often brought tears of joy to those around her. She will be missed. In her own word about her first juried show: "I entered a juried member art show. There were 102 entries and 50 were picked . My picture was one of the 50. It's title is Day of the Dead and it is done in pastel. First juried show I've entered." |
In Memory of Diane Shelby |
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July 23, 1947 – October 5, 2019
Diane Shelby was surrounded by her family when she passed away on October 5, 2019, due to complications from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Born July 23, 1947 to Michael Peter Shelby and Ann Marie Sovil in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Diane grew up on U.S. Air Force bases in Minnesota, Maine, and Missouri. When she was 20, her father was stationed in London, England, where Diane met a handsome serviceman from New York named Nicoll (Nick) Jones Edwards. They married on November 8, 1968 at the West Ruislip Air Station and returned stateside in 1970.
The couple followed the sun to Arizona, where they raised a son and daughter and enjoyed exploring their new home state. After several years in Tempe, the family moved to Flagstaff and built their own house, which Diane brought to life with meticulous interior design and flourishing ornamental gardens. She worked for W.L. Gore and Associates for 27 years, becoming a business analyst before retiring in 2012. In 2015, Nick and Diane moved to Tucson, where she rekindled her lifelong passion for art as a member of the Tucson Pastel Society.
In addition to painting beautiful landscapes, Diane was skilled at a wide range of creative pursuits, including home decor, gardening, needlepoint, sewing, cooking, and photography. She loved being out in nature and found inspiration for her artwork as she explored Arizona's diverse scenery. She particularly liked autumn and seeing fall colors on the aspen trees around Flagstaff and the maples at Ramsey Canyon and the Mogollon Rim.
Diane is survived by her husband Nick Edwards, son Ryan Edwards, daughter Amy Edwards, daughter-in-law Andrea Galyean, brothers Danny Shelby and Michael Shelby, and sister Mary Shelby. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Joseph Shelby.
Services will be private.
Diane joined TPS November 9, 2013, driving from Flagstaff each month to attend the meetings. In 2015 she joined the Executive Board as the Workshop Chair and has secured fabulous instructors for our two major workshops each year. When the board started the Volunteer Tuition Credit Program, Diane volunteered to keep the database for the program. Diane and her husband, Nick, have volunteered at the building with various renovation projects on numerous occasions and helped to provide a strong backbone for TPS.
She was an amazing artist, winning awards at most of our competitions and shows from the first time she could be convinced to enter. Following are those awards:
2014 – 2nd in the Membership Competition
2015 – Tohono Chul Show – 3rd Place
2015 – 3rd in the Membership Competition
2016 – Mesch, Clark and Rothschild Show – 2nd Place
2017 – Desert Harmony at the Ironwood Gallery – 3rd Place
2017 – 2nd in the Membership Competition
2018 – 3rd in the Membership Competition
2018 – Boyce Thompson Arboretum Show – 1st Place
From Diane’s Artist Statement:
“Many things inspire me to produce representational landscape paintings, but patterns, colors and textures often provide the incentive to begin a painting. These are the puzzle pieces that I mull over until a cohesive image of what to paint starts to emerge; then I commit to a sketch.
My painting media is pastel. I love pastels for their tactility, versatility and luminosity and opening my pastel box is tantamount to opening a box of jewels. Although the box of many colors is enticing, I usually start with an underpainting and often experiment with different media and methods to complete this task. My excitement peaks when the underpainting is dry because it’s time to apply the first strokes of pigment. I like the pastel marks to show in my work, but also blend areas by layering one pastel over or into another to intermingle the colors.
I’m primarily a studio painter but have recently ventured into the realm of plein air painting and am enjoying the challenges. The scenery in Arizona nurtures my creativity with its many offerings - distant mountains fading to a soft blue as they approach the horizon; multi-hued rocks jutting into a sky saturated with color; grasses with delicate seed heads that sway in a breeze; trees, shrubs and cacti with contorted trunks and undulating limbs struggle to survive in our dry climate; rivers or streams that rage or trickle at the whim of mother nature and architectural structures that invoke images of the people who built and inhabited them. Some of these views develop into paintings; others remain imprints in my mind to be mulled over another day.”
A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday, October 27, from 2–6 p.m. at the Tucson Pastel Society, 2447 N. Los Altos Ave., Tucson, AZ 85705. All who knew Diane are welcome to stop by to share memories and enjoy a selection of her favorite paintings.
If you would like to make a gift in Diane's memory, please consider a donation to the Tucson Pastel Society c/o 5226 W. Nighthawk Way, Tucson, AZ 85742 or www.tucsonpastelsociety.org/News/Donations.
Arizona Ash
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Catalina Rocks
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Memories of a Smith Pond Winter
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In Memory of Jet Shepard
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July 14, 1948 – May 4, 2019
Jeanette “Jet” Thomason Shepard was born July 14, 1948 and grew up in Oklahoma, surrounded by the traditional Southwest cultures that ultimately influenced her art.
After graduating from The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma with a BA in Professional/Commercial Art. She moved to Texas where she worked as a fashion illustrator for newspapers and department stores in Dallas, Austin and Houston. Jet was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 17 and after living in various places, she moved to the Tucson area for her health in 1976.
She started working as a Tupperware Consultant, soon becoming a Regional Manager. At one time, she was managing as many as sixty-seven consultants. Even though she eventually gave up the manager position, she was always willing to help by ordering Tupperware for her friends. She won all sorts of prizes and even a trip to the Bahamas.
On January 7, 1994, she married George Shepard and they promptly left on a four-and-a-half-month trip in their fifth wheel. When they returned to Tucson, Jet wanted to rekindle her love of painting, so George built her a lovely studio where she taught and hosted an open studio. During her career, she taught beginning and advanced pastel classes with an emphasis on portrait painting.
Jet was blessed with a daughter, Joye, and two lovely granddaughters, Alexandria and Rachel. She was the glue of their combined families with 16 step-grandchildren and 12 step-great-grandchildren, a brother, Chris Thomason and a sister, Margo Scoles. Two step-great-granddaughters, came every Friday to share time with Jet, learning how to bake a cake from scratch and to try their hand at watercolors.
She worked predominantly in the medium of fine art pastels, but her extensive portfolio also included 25 years of painting in oils. Known primarily for her outstanding commission portraits, she also worked in figures and still life and painted numerous historic architectural landmarks of Texas and Arizona.
Jet joined the Tucson Pastel Society in March of 2010, just two months after the first TPS meeting. From that day on, she was one of the biggest supporters of the Tucson Pastel Society. She immediately joined and served on the board for the rest of her life. She welcomed and encouraged everyone. Always wanting to volunteer for any project, her mind and heart was eager and willing but was constantly frustrated by her body’s limitations. Even with limitations, she thoroughly enjoyed life. She would push on when most people would have just given up. It is mind-boggling to think what she would have accomplished in good health. Her last completed painting was of a lion in gold, which so represents her fierce love of life and her heart of gold.
“When I’m in my art zone, a great sense of peace and fulfillment comes over me. It’s very easy to lose all sense of time when I’m painting, and my ultimate goal is to record a visual memory of fleeting yet beautiful moments in life. I like to explore human stories in the hint of a smile, a gesture, or the pattern of a hand-woven basket – and I look for depth of the human spirit and a meditative inner journey to help reinforce a commitment to my own life and creative work. I’m drawn to light because of the way it falls across a face or a costume and dramatically affects shape, form and color. Although I typically choose colors according to my mood, I especially am drawn to yellow because it is bright, sunny and warm. I’ve been working in oil paint for 25 years, and in soft pastels for 20 years with some overlap of the two mediums.” From the Bio of Jet Shepard
Jet gave of her time and heart to everyone. She always had something good to say to everyone and encouraged them in whatever they were trying to accomplish. There aren’t words to express how much she will be missed. She made our lives richer and the world a better place.
Jeanette “Jet” Thomason Shepard was born July 14, 1948 and grew up in Oklahoma, surrounded by the traditional Southwest cultures that ultimately influenced her art.
After graduating from The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma with a BA in Professional/Commercial Art. She moved to Texas where she worked as a fashion illustrator for newspapers and department stores in Dallas, Austin and Houston. Jet was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 17 and after living in various places, she moved to the Tucson area for her health in 1976.
She started working as a Tupperware Consultant, soon becoming a Regional Manager. At one time, she was managing as many as sixty-seven consultants. Even though she eventually gave up the manager position, she was always willing to help by ordering Tupperware for her friends. She won all sorts of prizes and even a trip to the Bahamas.
On January 7, 1994, she married George Shepard and they promptly left on a four-and-a-half-month trip in their fifth wheel. When they returned to Tucson, Jet wanted to rekindle her love of painting, so George built her a lovely studio where she taught and hosted an open studio. During her career, she taught beginning and advanced pastel classes with an emphasis on portrait painting.
Jet was blessed with a daughter, Joye, and two lovely granddaughters, Alexandria and Rachel. She was the glue of their combined families with 16 step-grandchildren and 12 step-great-grandchildren, a brother, Chris Thomason and a sister, Margo Scoles. Two step-great-granddaughters, came every Friday to share time with Jet, learning how to bake a cake from scratch and to try their hand at watercolors.
She worked predominantly in the medium of fine art pastels, but her extensive portfolio also included 25 years of painting in oils. Known primarily for her outstanding commission portraits, she also worked in figures and still life and painted numerous historic architectural landmarks of Texas and Arizona.
Jet joined the Tucson Pastel Society in March of 2010, just two months after the first TPS meeting. From that day on, she was one of the biggest supporters of the Tucson Pastel Society. She immediately joined and served on the board for the rest of her life. She welcomed and encouraged everyone. Always wanting to volunteer for any project, her mind and heart was eager and willing but was constantly frustrated by her body’s limitations. Even with limitations, she thoroughly enjoyed life. She would push on when most people would have just given up. It is mind-boggling to think what she would have accomplished in good health. Her last completed painting was of a lion in gold, which so represents her fierce love of life and her heart of gold.
“When I’m in my art zone, a great sense of peace and fulfillment comes over me. It’s very easy to lose all sense of time when I’m painting, and my ultimate goal is to record a visual memory of fleeting yet beautiful moments in life. I like to explore human stories in the hint of a smile, a gesture, or the pattern of a hand-woven basket – and I look for depth of the human spirit and a meditative inner journey to help reinforce a commitment to my own life and creative work. I’m drawn to light because of the way it falls across a face or a costume and dramatically affects shape, form and color. Although I typically choose colors according to my mood, I especially am drawn to yellow because it is bright, sunny and warm. I’ve been working in oil paint for 25 years, and in soft pastels for 20 years with some overlap of the two mediums.” From the Bio of Jet Shepard
Jet gave of her time and heart to everyone. She always had something good to say to everyone and encouraged them in whatever they were trying to accomplish. There aren’t words to express how much she will be missed. She made our lives richer and the world a better place.
Back Stage Humor
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Nature's Quilt
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Folkloricol Girls
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In Memory of Dian Moore |
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April 18, 1953 - July 15, 2017
Dian grew up in the small town of Safford AZ with 2 sisters. She excelled in grade school and high school, always easily being at the top of her class. She followed with a college and career path in a similar fashion. Dian had a 3.7 grade point average as an under graduate and finished up with a 4.0 GPA in graduate school with a Master’s Degree in Educational Accounting. Her career working in accounting led her to be the Budget Director of Pima County in the late 80’s and then of Pima Community College in the 2000’s. She was fortunate to be able to retire when she was 55. That is when she started playing with art and color.
Dian has been my friend for a long enough time, that I can no longer pinpoint when or where we met. But I do remember clearly that it was at a St. Patrick’s Day party in 2011 that Dian asked if I was interested in getting together regularly to paint with pastels. From that day on we set up our easels together for a couple of hours most Tuesday afternoons. Neither of us started with much knowledge of the pastel medium, so we learned together and from each other. I was intrigued by her unique eye for color, and at first I encouraged her to slow down and draw. Before long, she could draw anything she wanted, quickly and accurately. Dian was also really good at taking a photo of anything and changing it to something a little different, more fantastic.
In 2012 we joined the Tucson Pastel Society. It was fun to attend meetings together, and discuss what we had learned. Dian took better notes than anyone I know. If there was ever a question of what was said, she always had it her notes.
We drew and painted and talked and shared and became very close friends in those many afternoons. I am thankful that she got me to start painting with pastels. I will always be inspired by her vision of color.
By her good friend Cindy Hierl
Gold Beach
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Catalina's Flip Side
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Bobcat Bright
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In Memory of Nellie Nichols |
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July 25, 2016
“Pastel, to Me, is the chocolate of art media – The purest pigment, pressed into a thousand sticks which seem good enough to eat …My wish is to convey the pleasure that strikes me whenever I see a scene I must paint: a vibrant sight a minute ago or an echo from another time and place. “ The quote is from Nellie’s own artist’s statement and not only relates her love of pastels, but her writing expertise. Helen “Nellie” Otto Nichols was born in Greenwich Village, N.Y.C. She was most at home with beach life, nature, museums, theater and books. She married a New York Times sports writer and soaked up the microcosm of life in thoroughbred racing while becoming a magazine writer in the area of sports, travel, gardening, ecological concerns including research, sketching and photography. Her passion for art led to work at the Museum of Modern Art, The New School Gallery and Art Forum Magazine. Nellie always found a fascination with the offbeat. She was a romantic and not easily confined within four walls. The opportunity to travel beckoned through a job promoting an international thoroughbred horse transport business. When life changed, Tucson became her home where she became involved in the Southwest art world. She was a board member of the Southwestern League of Fine Arts and exhibited her work in many venues in the area. Nellie was a founding member of the Tucson Pastel Society and the main influence in my organizing the society. I met Nellie at a workshop she organized with Maggie Price and pastels became my art medium of choice. Her continued encouragement during the last five years has resulted in an exciting and active society. Nellie had an enthusiasm for life that is contagious. I often told her that I wanted to be just life her when I grew up. She invited me to celebrate her 90th Birthday by sharing a hot-air balloon ride which was a fantastic experience for us both. Nellie stepped through aging as she did everything else, with grace and dignity. She looked for the good in everyone and everything. She desired to live long enough to mater pastels under Tucson’s magic skies. I’m not sure anyone ever masters pastels, but she always had the magic. Where ever she is, I know she is organizing an art class or show and painting to her heart’s content. Forever missed, Nellie!!!! Becky Neideffer, President Tucson Pastel Society. |
In Memory of Charlotte Griffin
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Brandy in the Basket
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1933 – October 29, 2015
Charlotte Franc Griffin Passed away peacefully on October 29, 2015, less than a month before her 82nd birthday. Her daughter, Marion and grandson, Tyler were at her side. Charlotte was predeceased by the love of her life and second husband, William (Mickey) Griffin last summer. Charlotte was a very active, vibrant woman with many wonderful friends who will miss her dearly. She was born in Germany and came to America in 1962. She worked as a dental technician and owned her own business for many years. She was an accomplished artist, working primarily in pastels and oils. She was involved with the German Club, played canasta with a group of close friends, went to water aerobics with another great group of women and was famous with her neighbors for her incredible chocolate chip cookies. She loved to travel and had a great zest for life. To know her was to love her. She leaves behind her heartbroken family: daughter, Marion Rogers; son-in-law, Rick Rogers; grandson, Tyler and granddaughter, Jenna (Tyler) Krager. She is also survived by numerous family members in Germany. A big thank you to all of her amazing friends and the wonderful people at Handmaker and TMC Hospice. You all made our journey a little easier. |
in Memory of Elizabeth Manfredi |
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September 5, 1953 – September 4, 2015
Elizabeth Manfredi of Birchwood never saw her final exhibition: the landscape painter was accepted to show her artwork at ArtReach St. Croix, but sadly passed away before she could see the gallery on display.
Manfredi passed away on Sept. 4, 2015 at age 62—just a day before her birthday, and on the same day her best friend from high school in Chicago died. At the time, Manfredi had been working on a portrait of that friend, which is now on display in the gallery. The show also includes artwork from trips to Europe and Arizona. Manfredi and Lewis Schnellman spent the last several years splitting their time between summers in Minnesota and winters in Oracle, Arizona. As experienced travelers, the pair found a natural rhythm in transporting themselves across the country.
“Most of her training was in Europe, so she was really well founded on realism,” he said. “She first got interested in painting when she was a child. Her grandmother saw she was so interested, and she was living with her grandmother in Chicago at this time. They hired an art teacher, and she started teaching her, and then when she went to college. She was still interested but she didn’t get that kind of degree. She taught in high school, then into advertising and started working as an art director, that’s when she moved to Minnesota, and then she got much more interested in fine art painting and decided to quit and become a full time artist. That was big move for her to do that. And she was very interested at first in spiritual iconography, saints, things like that. At one time she was thinking she would just go and paint icons at some monastery somewhere, and when she went there was she realized that it wasn’t the life for her. There was a young Marine there who was recovering from some wound or something, and she said she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him, so she knew she wouldn’t be good here at this place! She’d been to so many places and spent a lot of time in Europe. She got her art education there.”
The two merged their art studios, and worked out of a building in St. Paul’s Lowertown. The two explored finding a warmer place to spend their winters, eventually settling on Arizona. Schnellman and Manfredi both taught art courses at community colleges in the area. They built a home near picturesque Mount Lemmon, just 80 miles north of the Mexican border.
“She was what you call Type A, energetic, and it was sad to see her health fail slowly,” Schnellman said. “She was just so mad about it! She couldn’t stand it because she loved to get things done, she was always optimistic, and she was on a spiritual journey all her life. She’d been to many different churches, but found the most from her Catholic upbringing. She and her friend Claire were in constant contact with each other, to the point where she would go down to Chicago and take care of Claire’s children when she was sick or having another child.
Between all of the international adventures and forays into the Arizona desert, Manfredi’s home in Minnesota played as much a role in her artwork as any of the scenic views in France and Italy. “She loved being here in the summer,” Schnellman said. “We would go down to White Bear Lake and sit in the evening and watch the sun go down. There’s a wonderful painting of that, a sunset with a lone boatman driving a boat across the lake. She was always working, her whole life. She was pretty energetic and really, really a good artist.”
Elizabeth Manfredi of Birchwood never saw her final exhibition: the landscape painter was accepted to show her artwork at ArtReach St. Croix, but sadly passed away before she could see the gallery on display.
Manfredi passed away on Sept. 4, 2015 at age 62—just a day before her birthday, and on the same day her best friend from high school in Chicago died. At the time, Manfredi had been working on a portrait of that friend, which is now on display in the gallery. The show also includes artwork from trips to Europe and Arizona. Manfredi and Lewis Schnellman spent the last several years splitting their time between summers in Minnesota and winters in Oracle, Arizona. As experienced travelers, the pair found a natural rhythm in transporting themselves across the country.
“Most of her training was in Europe, so she was really well founded on realism,” he said. “She first got interested in painting when she was a child. Her grandmother saw she was so interested, and she was living with her grandmother in Chicago at this time. They hired an art teacher, and she started teaching her, and then when she went to college. She was still interested but she didn’t get that kind of degree. She taught in high school, then into advertising and started working as an art director, that’s when she moved to Minnesota, and then she got much more interested in fine art painting and decided to quit and become a full time artist. That was big move for her to do that. And she was very interested at first in spiritual iconography, saints, things like that. At one time she was thinking she would just go and paint icons at some monastery somewhere, and when she went there was she realized that it wasn’t the life for her. There was a young Marine there who was recovering from some wound or something, and she said she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him, so she knew she wouldn’t be good here at this place! She’d been to so many places and spent a lot of time in Europe. She got her art education there.”
The two merged their art studios, and worked out of a building in St. Paul’s Lowertown. The two explored finding a warmer place to spend their winters, eventually settling on Arizona. Schnellman and Manfredi both taught art courses at community colleges in the area. They built a home near picturesque Mount Lemmon, just 80 miles north of the Mexican border.
“She was what you call Type A, energetic, and it was sad to see her health fail slowly,” Schnellman said. “She was just so mad about it! She couldn’t stand it because she loved to get things done, she was always optimistic, and she was on a spiritual journey all her life. She’d been to many different churches, but found the most from her Catholic upbringing. She and her friend Claire were in constant contact with each other, to the point where she would go down to Chicago and take care of Claire’s children when she was sick or having another child.
Between all of the international adventures and forays into the Arizona desert, Manfredi’s home in Minnesota played as much a role in her artwork as any of the scenic views in France and Italy. “She loved being here in the summer,” Schnellman said. “We would go down to White Bear Lake and sit in the evening and watch the sun go down. There’s a wonderful painting of that, a sunset with a lone boatman driving a boat across the lake. She was always working, her whole life. She was pretty energetic and really, really a good artist.”
Canyon de Chelly, Joan's View
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EM Sunrise Over Bonnieux, France
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Peppersauce Canyon
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In Memory of Don Weber |
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October 18, 1934 - May 20, 2013
Donald Stanley Weber 10/28/1934 - 5/20/2013 born Sleepy Eye, MN to Leonard and Lorena Schneider Weber. He is preceded in death by siblings, Gary Weber, Duane Weber, Sharon Ibberson and Charlotte Wall. He is survived by brother, Kenneth (Evelyn) of Florida. Don held a Masters degree in archeology. He was an accomplished artist and belonged to many art organizations. His weekends were filled with friends and dancing. He will be sadly missed by many of us who loved him. Cremation by DESERT ROSE, HEATHER CREMATION AND BURIAL