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22 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | FEBRUARY 2021 | Art League Just in case: Check with your club contact to confirm meeting place, date, and time. I'm sorry to report that the situation in the Art League is still the same. There are no classes or meetings scheduled until further notice, due to the pandemic. We hope things will change soon and we will be back together and doing the things we all enjoy. The person I want you to meet this month is June Kessen, who has lived in Sun Lakes for 21 years, and been a long time active member of the Art League. She has taken many special art classes here and earned several awards for her paintings over the years. This is her story: I have always had an interest in art in its various forms. Although I didn't think of it as "art" at the time, helping my mother make a quilt as a child, during the long winter days in Indiana, was my first introduction into creating a piece of art. As I remember, my first encounter with drawing was the drawing of a vase in my home economics class at school. I came to California from Indiana in 1948 with a friend who had family living in Hollywood. Those were Hollywood's glamour days. Deciding to stay, I took a job with Security 1st National Bank on Larchmont Blvd. in Los Angeles. I met my husband here, and we were married in Las Vegas in 1949. At that time Las Vegas was a small town. We settled in Burbank and then had three children; two girls and one boy. I became a stay-at-home mom until they were all in college, at which time I went back to work for Security Pacific Bank in the Loan Department. My husband Mel was Vice President and Production Manager for a sheet metal company. They did work for NASA, Northrup, McDonald Douglas, Hughes Aircraft, and other major companies. We retired in 1980 and moved to Canyon Lake, CA where we lived for 20 years until moving into Sun Lakes in November, 1999. My husband's interest was in antiques. He was particularly interested in the beauty in the carving of antique martial weapons. We made many trips to museums and research libraries, always with much appreciation of the art. Our interests grew to include many areas of the arts. I lost Mel in 2012. I joined the Art League as a complete novice. I had experimented with oil painting on my own by reading "how to" books and teaching myself, and soon expanded into acrylics, watercolors, pastels, china painting, and fabric art. It has been, as Joe Oaks says, "a journey." With the art classes and the great teachers, who are so patient and helpful, I have learned a lot. I find that creating art is a great way to relieve tension and achieve a good feeling of accomplishment. I deeply appreciate the many friends I have met along my journey. June Kessen with a sampling of her art