As a society, we like to tell people that it's always best to follow your dreams and do what you love.
It's good advice, but unfortunately lots of people end up with careers that are more work than joy. Marian Schlosser was one of those people, but she's flipped the script in her retirement and now does what she's always loved - art.
"It's the one thing I do because I love it," Schlosser said. "Everything else I do because I have to."
Schlosser lives in Watson but her art will be on display at the Humboldt & District Museum & Gallery until the end of October. Though she prefers oil paintings, her work spans the gamut from pencil drawings to pastels.
"I tend to gravitate toward realism," Schlosser said. "I do a lot of nature, a lot of animals and birds."
She's been making art for almost 40 years but it's become a full-time occupation only recently. Schlosser sells her work through her Facebook page and has shipped orders to customers from all across Canada and the U.S.
The end product is usually a beautiful piece, but the process of getting to that point can be tedious and time-consuming.
"It depends on what I'm doing," Schlosser said of the time commitment. "If I'm doing buildings that can take a while because there's a lot of detail. If I'm doing realistic work I can spend up to eight hours on an individual petal of a rose."
Schlosser also teaches art classes, mostly from home. As a juried artist (one whose work has been viewed and appreciated by an artistic jury) for close to 30 years, she's made a second career out of what she always hoped would be her first.
