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Arts & Entertainment

Local Artist Brings Whimsical Worlds to Life

Now retired from teaching, Linda Wagner is excited to challenge herself to reach new artistic heights.

Linda Wagner’s love for art sparked as a child when her father began to entertain her and her sister with his hand-drawn cartoons.  Wagner began drawing right away, gaining recognition for her talent as early as first grade. 

“I was a shy child, but my first grade teacher noticed my drawings and put me in charge of drawing all the costumes for a play about Mean Mr. Tooth Decay,” she said.

While her drawings gained her positive recognition, Wagner also admits that her talents got her in trouble as well.  In particular, she recalls an incident when satirical paintings of her English teacher, science teacher and basketball coach appeared posted on a school bulletin board. 

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Whether good or bad attention though, she was proud of her pictures.

“Art was the only thing I ever really felt completely confident about,” Wagner said.

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In 1966, Wagner became the first person in her family to go to college when she went to study art at The Maryland Institute College of Art (Mica) on a full scholarship.  She also completed some graduate work at Mica and Johns Hopkins University before receiving a fellowship in 1969 and then going on to Yale.

Despite riling up the teachers in her high school years, Wagner completed education courses at Yale and then became a teacher herself.  Wagner taught at the Middle School level, moving over the years to different schools in Baltimore County including Arbutus Jr. High and , a magnet school for fine and visual arts.  Wagner also ran an art camp at Catonsville Community College for 17 years.

Wagner took a hiatus from teaching when she and her husband moved to North Carolina, but after a divorce in 2001, she moved back to Maryland, this time taking up residence in Westminster. At this time, she also re-kindled her relationship with her childhood best friend, Gypsy, owner of Gypsy’s Tea Room after 38 years.

Wagner most often paints with watercolor and touches of colored pencil as these are instant gratification materials that can be used in small spaces.  However, she admits that she is quick to jump to other techniques such as oil paint and charcoal.

“Even though I was always trained to focus on one particular skill, I sometimes feel like a person with multiple artistic personalities, jumping to whatever medium suits my current idea,” Wagner joked.

As for the theme of her art, Wagner has always been inspired by the whimsical characters in Walt Disney films and children’s books.  She completed courses in children’s book illustration and joined the nationwide Society of Children’s Book Writers. Thus far, she has illustrated a cookbook available at Gypsy’s Tearoom and looks forward to future illustration projects.

Her art can also be seen decorating the walls of , recently opened by Gypsy’s daughter.

Now retired from teaching, Wagner is excited to tackle a new chapter of her life that will be focused on her whimsical and media-varied art.  She loves Westminster, particularly as a source for artistic inspiration and she routinely takes drives to gather pictures of trees and buildings and landscapes that inspire her.

Wagner’s new artistic goal is to challenge herself with projects that will be grander in scale and more time consuming than some of her past works.  She loves the total freedom that art provides her.  While there is a great complexity to the pieces she creates, combining it with her strong imagination allows her to develop “believable” worlds and bring the whimsical to life.

To learn more, see more works, or contact Wagner visit her website here.

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