This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The daughter of a successful carpet manufacturer, Isabelle Churchman began her art studies at the Maryland Institute of Art in 1914. She transferred to Goucher College also in Baltimore in 1916, where she remained for two years. Afterwards, she attended Columbia Teachers' College in New York, which graduated her in 1920. Returning to Baltimore, Isabelle enrolled in the Rinehart School of Sculpture where her instructors included Ephraim Keyser, J. Maxwell Miller, and Herbert Adams. In 1922, she obtained a travel scholarship to Europe after exhibiting her small bronze Dancing Fauns in a Rinehart competition.
When she returned from her European studies, Isabelle began teaching, and from 1926 to 1930 taught arts and crafts at the Park School in Baltimore. During this time she also produced several large portrait reliefs including one of her great -uncle, Dr. John Thomas King, for Johns Hopkins University. Tom Huston, who had made a fortune selling "Tom's Peanuts", saw and admired the relief of Dr. King. In appreciation for the advice he had received from Dr. George Washington Carver, the "Peanut Wizard," Huston commissioned Isabelle to produce a bronze relief portrait of the black scientist. This was installed at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in May of 1931.
In 1930, Isabelle visited relatives in California, and despite the growing Depression, decided to move to San Diego. Renting a cottage in La Jolla, she taught at the Balmer School there for three years. Isabelle joined the San Diego Art Guild, and at the Guild's exhibit in 1933 her sculpture Buddy received second prize. This piece was exhibited again at the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935. That same year she obtained the commission to produce a life-size bronze figure of a child on a dolphin called Crest of the Wave for a man in Mentor, Ohio. James Tank Porter cast the sculpture for her at his La Mesa foundry.
In the mid 1930s, Isabelle began teaching arts and crafts at the Francis Parker School. She also went on the government payroll making dioramas depicting episodes of San Diego history for the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA). While on this project she met and worked with other local artists including Celeste Batiste, Donal Hord, and Edwin T. Churchman, whom she married on May 19, 1936.
Ed later obtained a job as inspector at the agricultural station between California and Arizona at Blythe. He carved the California bear, which still stands at the Blythe station. While in the desert, Isabelle finished a four foot tall onyx sculpture of St. Francis for the Francis Parker School, which she had begun in 1937.
Returning to San Diego in 1941, Isabelle became a draftsman for the 11th Naval District during World War II. She also produced a war memorial for the Russ Auditorium of San Diego High School which consisted of mahogany relief panels depicting Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" in 1944. After the war she taught classes at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, adult education, and the Y. M. C. A. among others. Although best known for her sculpture in bronze and ceramic, she also worked in pottery, watercolors, enamel on copper, and glass tile mosaic. Among her architectural projects were figural groups for the Burnham and Prudential buildings in San Diego, and a portrait relief of Dean Peterson for San Diego State College.
As art tendencies became more progressive, Isabelle had difficulty adjusting and became depressed that her work was no longer being appreciated. She suffered an emotional breakdown. To help speed her recovery, long-time friend Donal Hord encouraged her to make small bronzes using the lost-wax method. This occupied her for the next fifteen years during which she produced over sixty-five different bronzes in small editions. These are lively pieces depicting mermaids, children at play, and children with animals.
Source:
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/89summer/sculptors.htm
(Ref. AAA 1927; Hughes ; Moure; Quayle, Betty, and Ruth Kundle, Moving Bronze: The Vision of Isabella Churchman, unpublished mss, no date; SDET 5-31-44; SDU 5-3-32 II3:2, 4-22-33 6:1, 5-5-34 7:8, 12-23-34 Club 2:6; WWAA 1936-37 )
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Born in Baltimore, MD on April 20, 1896, Isabelle Schultz began her art studies at the Maryland Institute of Art in 1914. After graduation from Columbia Teachers' College in 1920, she studied at the Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore with Ephraim Keyser and Herbert Adams.
From 1926-30 she taught arts and crafts in her native city at the Park School. While visiting in San Diego in 1930, she opted to remain. During the 1930s she taught art at the Francis Parker School there and was employed on the Federal Art Project. There she met Edwin Churchman whom she wed in 1936.
She died in Chula Vista, CA on Feb. 25, 1988.
Her work includes bronze sculptures, pottery, watercolors, enamel on copper, and glass-tile mosaics.
Exhibitions:
San Diego Art Guild, 1933 (1st prize), 1934 (2nd prize); Calif.-Pacific Int'l Expo (San Diego), 1935.
Collections:
San Diego State College; Tuskegee (AL) Inst.; San Diego High School Auditorium (mahogany relief panels of Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms"); Medical Bldg (Baltimore, MD). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
American Art Annual 1927; Who's Who in American Art 1936-53. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
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