Hampton Roads Local Music and Art
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Featured Artist
Connie Desaulniers
Grandma Knows Best
Listen to full audio interview here
Connie Desaulniers, Look into my Crystal Ball
Like all children, Connie Desaulniers enjoyed sketching and coloring. One day, when she was 10 years old, she sketched a profile of her sister while they were watching television. Their parents enjoyed her work, and that compliment motivated Desaulniers to seriously pursue painting. She studied art throughout high school, and she was eager to major in art in college. Her father, on the other hand, had other intentions. He suggested to her—with good reason, of course—to receive a liberal arts education so she could find what people call a “real job.” Desaulniers ended up attending the College of William & Mary, and although she continued studying art and graduated with a B. A. in Fine Arts, her William & Mary education opened many doors in other areas, including a sales position at Busch Gardens during her senior year in college. She took the job and from there, began her busy career in marketing. Consequently, her productivity in art dwindled.
In the middle of her marketing career, Desaulniers visited her grandmother, who was blind and living in a nursing home. Her grandmother asked her, “Are you still painting?” Desaulniers answered, “No, I’m too busy with my job.” Her grandmother then looked into her direction, and putting her fist in the air, she exclaimed, “You better do it, or God will take it away from you.”
Those words from her grandmother did the trick to make Desaulniers return to painting. Years later, collectors across the United States have purchased her works, and she now has her latest paintings on display at the café MAD about Chocolate, which she co-owns with her husband and chef Marcel Desaulniers in Williamsburg.
In this episode of Stories in the Sky, Desaulniers talks with Victor Russo about her experiences with returning to the art world, her techniques behind her craft, and her fondness for nature.
Connie and Marcel Desaulniers
Connie Desaulniers is a painter and the co-owner of the chocolate café MAD about Chocolate. You can view her artwork at MAD about Chocolate and online at http://www.bydesignart.com and http://www.madaboutchocolate.us.
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