For those with an artistic

talent - whether it is in arts, crafts, music, theater or

other cultural arts - Fayette County has a lot to offer.

The following series of articles highlight some of the

opportunities and some Prime Timer's who are involved in

the arts.

Cynthia McMorries -

Painting

Cynthia McMorries has been

dabbling in the arts for at least 30 to 35 years.

Her interest in painting

began during a two-year stay in Italy. She and her

husband enjoyed touring the various museums of Europe.

While wandering through the

many excellent museums, Cynthia grew curious as to what

made a painting good, aside from the fact that someone

"just liked the way it looked." She decided to

take a painting course, thinking it might help her

appreciate art more. She is still painting.

Oil is her medium of

choice. She downplays her talents, in spite of requests

still life and landscapes although she will occasionally

do an abstract.

She laughs and says,

"If something doesn't turn out well, I punish it and

put it in the basement. Later I might resurrect it and

see if I can fix it. If not, I'll scrape it off and paint

over it."

She says painting is a form

of "self-therapy" and recommends it to others,

saying they would benefit from "trying to catch

something on canvas."

She notes, "It's good

to get involved with painting. When trying to get

something within yourself on canvas, you don't think

about the problems in life. You forget everything."

When she first moved to

Peachtree City 27 years ago, Fayette County did not have

an active art association. She joined the Coweta Art

Association and is still a member. She continues to take

lessons and speaks highly of instructor Tom Powers, the

founder of the well-known, and well-attended, Powers

Crossroads Fair.

McMorries is one of the

original board members of the Endowment Committee for the

Cultural Arts (ECCA), where she continues to be an active

board member. She feels strongly about the arts.

"I think sports are

great; I've been a sports lover all of my life," she

said. "However, there are more kids in school

involved in the arts - band, music, dance, theater,

painting - than in sports. Cultural arts are very

important to people. Unfortunately, the funding for the

arts is substantially less locally than it is for

sports."

She continued, "I

think it's a part of mankind to express ourselves -

whether through art, dance, theater or some other

creative outlet."

While McMorries doesn't

pursue sales or work to seek out opportunities to exhibit

her work, she has displayed her work at Wesley Woods,

libraries in Peachtree City and Newnan, local restaurants

and elsewhere. She also donates her work to the ECCA for

auctions and sales to assist in fund-raising to support

local arts.

Her work will be on display

at the upcoming ECCA membership party in September.

ART Box Inset:

For those interested in

finding out more about local art associations and other

ways to get involved in the arts:

Endowment Committee for the

Cultural Arts - 770-631-2302 Cynthia McMorries -

770-487-8321

Silvia Feenaghty

.770-487-1005

Fayette Society of Fine

Arts, Gloria Solly - 770-460-1390 Newnan-Coweta Arts

Association, Barbara Scruggs - 770-583-2093

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