Inspiring Women Winter 2017

Inspiration from a FAWCO friend
LEE SORENSON
American Women’s Club of Rome, Italy
and FAUSA
From: California, USA (born in Idaho)
Lives: Westlake Village, California
My first step in the journey in the world of
art was in 1964 in Rome, Italy, while I was
assigned to the Office of International
Affairs, Treasury Department, at the US
Embassy. I met Mary Mag and her
husband Ed at that time and they
introduced me to a remarkable artist,
teacher, and truly a Renaissance man,
Manlio Guberti (Katherine Hepburn had
many of his paintings and other art
works in her noteworthy collection). With
Manlio, I began studying oil and
tempera-on-sand techniques with some
success. At the same time, I joined the
sculpting class of Helena Zelinsky, a
renowned sculptor of various popes,
who had a small studio where she taught beginning and advanced students. Both my
teachers encouraged me, and suggested I study both art forms seriously. I had had no
previous experience in art of any kind until that time, although I had loved observing it since I
was a child. I was elated that I was in a city filled with amazing art, architecture and music,
and I was determined to take full advantage of the cultural life going on around me.
In 1972, I married and had
two children. Out the window
went my artistic endeavors as
I devoted my creative
energies to being married,
cooking (another love), and
raising my boys. Looking back
now, it surprises me a great
deal that I did not continue in
some way. Nevertheless, the
seed had definitely been
planted and bloomed again
decades later, when I
returned to the United States
and, on a whim, decided to
take an introduction to
watercolors offered at a local
community center. It was as if
53
“Flowers I”