Gretta Bader

Gretta Bader's obituary was in the Washington Post last week.  She was a sculptor and had taught down at The Art League in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria.  I had taken sculpture lessons from her back in the 90's.  She was a great teacher.  She left the area, and I never knew what happened to her.  Her son was a movie star in Hollywood.  He was in the movie, The Beverly Hillbillies.  Diebrich Bader played Jethro.  When I watched the movie, I giggled through the whole thing because it was like looking at Gretta dressed as a man.  He looks just like his mom.

The sad thing about hearing about a death of someone you admired is that you wished you had told them.  I wish I had told Gretta how much I enjoyed her class and what a great teacher she was.  Unfortunately, I've lost that opportunity and will never be able to tell her how much I loved her class.
It makes me realize that we need to tell people around us what they mean to us while they are still here to appreciate the compliment.

Obit picture of Gretta Bader

Sharon - Version #2
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Sharon - Version #1
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Gretta had a model one time named Sharon.  Sharon posed for us for 8 weeks.  I started my sculpture of her, and after about 3 weeks, Gretta told me to stop and start over.  I was a little surprised because I liked what I had done so far and didn't just want to tear it down and start over.  So I put it aside and started a new one.  I'm glad she did have me do this.  I have 2 pieces, both which are in my living room.  One is the "sketch" of only a couple of weeks and the other is a more finished product.  I learned a lot from doing this, although it was very painful at the time.  Thanks, Gretta, for pushing me to do more!  I cherish both of these portrait sculptures and what they taught me.