silvia stoner

CFA AR 690 Final Paper Virginia Peros

Sylvia Cornella StonerMarch 5, 1916 to January 25, 1977

Leadville Colorado’s First Artist/Teacher

Lake County High School

Yearbook 1964 Yearbook 1976

Boston UniversityPrograms in Education

Online Masters in Art Education ProgramCFA AR 690 History of Art Education

Professor James DaichendtSummer I 2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Biographical facts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Short history of Leadville, Colorado. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Sylvia Stoner: Artist/Teacher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

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INTRODUCTION

Being introduced to the concept of Artist/Teacher has been an awakening for me

and has clarified my own art teaching philosophy and helped me analyze why and how I

teach as well as create art. It made me think back to all of my art teachers and recall the

ones who I really enjoyed and the very few who I did not. Funny that I seem to have

forgotten the names of the inglorious teachers but the ones that stood out are still sharp in

my memory. “It is the teacher’s job to stimulate thought and observation and help the

pupil make clear impressions in his own mind” (Audrey from Pearce, 2000, p.31). The

good teachers are always memorable. This train of thought reminded me of a plaque

outside of the Lake County High School Art Room in memory of Sylvia Stoner,

Leadville’s First Art Teacher. Every time I asked about it, I was told she was an amazing

teacher and had left some money to the art department in her will for a scholarship fund. I

was not even sure when she taught and what the history was exactly. Who was this

woman and why was she remembered so lovingly?

I began my search on the Internet and found only references to her were articles

about local artists who still considered her their mentor. I duly noted the names, one of

which I knew personally, Bill Harrington. I called him and he agreed to see me and was

very enthusiastic about reminiscing on Sylvia Stoner. I next went to the local library and

searched the microfiche files of the Herald Democrat, the daily local paper (now a

weekly). I did find her death notice; an obituary and the announcement of the unveiling

of the plaque the students had purchased naming the art room in memory of their teacher.

The Library also had all of the Lake County High School Yearbooks and so I was able to

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put a face with the name, although it was only from faculty studio photographs. I also

made note that several of the new teachers then were now recently retired and had taught

my children – I knew several of them. It is a very small town and I have lived here 30

years, the connections began to be very personal.

The information in this paper, if not cited, is from the people that I was able to

contact who knew and loved her. I discovered she was a Cornella, an influential family in

the Leadville area. Her surviving relatives whom I spoke with are Donna Cornella and

Jackie (“cousins” still living in Leadville), and Olivia Stoner, her daughter-in-law

(Broomfield, Colorado). Teachers who worked with her and are still in the area were also

great sources: Dave Schutte (retired band director) and Sue Jewell (retired English

teacher). The students who I contacted are friends of mine: Terry Ryan, disabled

veteran/artist; Joe Romero, ski instructor/artist, Bill Harrington, miner/artist, and Mary

DuPont, hospital worker and art enthusiast. This quick overview of Sylvia Stoner is just a

scratch on the surface of an incredible “invisible” history of an amazing artist, teacher

and woman. One of her students suggested that we create a blog site for former students

and colleagues to write in to, add/correct, or refute this beginning history. Bill Harrington

suggested the site be named “The Stoners”, a tongue in cheek yet fitting name.

BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS

Sylvia Cornella was born and raised in Leadville, Colorado, one of two daughters

born to Barbara and Ernest Cornella, Italian immigrants and owners of the Cornella

Market. They had a very large, extended family. Everyone in Leadville seems to be

related. She and Columbya, her older sister, were quite close and very similar in their

artistic, flamboyant style and joie de vivre. She graduated from Lake County High School

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and attended the Colorado State College of Education (now The University of Northern

Colorado, previously the Colorado State Normal School), in Greeley, where she obtained

her teaching certificate. Donna and Jackie were sure she had continued on and received

her Master’s degree but were unsure whether it was in education or art. This was in the

early 60’s right before she became the art teacher at the Lake County High School. They

believe she taught in a small, one-room school before teaching second and third grade at

Pitts Elementary School in Leadville. In 1964 she became the first art teacher at the Lake

County High School where she taught until her untimely death of a brain tumor in

January of 1977. She was a devoted member of PEO (Philanthropic Educational

Organization) and this was the organization that set up the Sylvia Stoner Memorial

Student Grant P.E.O. scholarship. This scholarship is still awarded today to a

graduating senior girl, art student from Lake County. She married James “Stoner”

Stoner –the love of her life - in 1945 and they had one son James. Her home was

across the street from the Cornella market and her gift shop/gallery, the dolly b, was

next door.

.

SHORT HISTORY OF LEADVILLE COLORADO

Leadville, Colorado is an historic mining town nestled at the base of the

Continental Divide. It is the highest incorporated city in the United States (10,152 feet

above sea level). Such names as Molly Brown, Horace and Baby Doe Tabor, Doc

Holliday and Oscar Wilde are just a few famous people from it’s past. FN1 (Leadville

Time-Line, p. 5). It is a hard-rock mining, “Boom and Bust” town. The economy of

Leadville has always hinged on mining – first gold, then silver, and then and now

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Molybdenum. When the price of ore is high the economy is booming. When the

price comes crashing down the economy is a bust. When the economy is booming

the population grows and the community flourishes. When the economy is a bust the

population diminishes. The professionals move to where there are better paying jobs

and those left behind work out of the area or have several jobs to make ends meet.

Not until another economic boom arises will the community begin to come together

again. When the community is strong, education is strong. Leadville, Lake County,

Colorado, has survived three major economic and community “Booms and Busts”: The

Gold Boom and Bust, 1860-1865; The Silver Boom and Bust, 1877-1893; and the

Molybdenum Boom and Bust 1916-1983 (Leadville time-line). As an example, the

assessed valuation of Lake County, according to the Lake County Assessors records, in

1980 was $175,814,730 and in 1990 it was $54,215,000. The art program at the High

School was created during one of the prosperous “boom” eras, and the community was

strong. As John Dewey stated, “A successful school, like a successful business is a

cohesive community of shared values, beliefs, rituals and ceremonies” (Dewey, 1909, p.

x). Sylvia Stoner’s love of life, her community, the arts, and teaching was an unbeatable

combination, and the program and her students thrived.

SYLVIA STONER: ARTIST/TEACHER

Even though Sylvia insisted that she was a much better teacher then an artist, it is

very hard to separate the two. She lived her art. She was flamboyant but classy, eccentric

but stylish. “…being an artist is more than a degree or course of study; it is, rather, a way

of seeing and living” (Daichendt, 2010, p. 10). She was dynamic and had a vivid energy

that her students still talk about and remember. Numerous students I spoke with still hear

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her when they are painting or working on a creative project. Each student has stated that

she influenced not only their love of art but also their attitude towards life. She is still

with them.

Her artwork that I was able to find ranged from serious fine art studies similar to

early Van Gough’s (Figure 3) to simple, sweet commercial designs reminiscent of Betty

Boop or the little dutch boy (Figure 10). She created religious paintings (Figure 13) and

made rosaries for the church to send to missions around the world. There were

impressionistic ceramic sculptures (Figure 6) and one wooden form to rival the lines of

Henry Moore (Figure 5). There were many paintings of mines, large and small (Figure

8). There was even one that had been salvaged from her garage door (Figure 12). She

simplified these paintings into simple, line drawings of mines for her commercial pottery

(Figure 11). This amazing array of different styles is reflected in her personal life and her

teaching style. From all accounts she was unique but managed to keep her classroom

flexible but in “control”. Every person I interviewed remarked on her bearing and poise.

She commanded respect without being over-bearing or tyrannical.

No male student would dare wear a hat in her presence. As she passed through the

cafeteria on her way to the art room anyone misbehaving would straighten up. Her

colleagues stated that she was the only teacher in the school who could address the

students with the word “children” and not be questioned. There was a total and mutual

respect. She called her students Mr. and Miss or Sir. When the first name was used as in

“Mr. Joe” it was a good thing. When she used the last name, “Mr. Romero, you knew it

was serious. Every student recalled not wanting to disappoint her and they knew her

expectations were high. Joe talked about having to come into her advanced art class and

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explain to the entire class why he wanted to be admitted into the class and what he

thought he would learn from it. He said it was a life clarifying moment.

Her teaching style was eclectic. She would demonstrate ideas and assignments on

the black board much like the style of George Wallis, showing the progressive

movements and actions in the drawing techniques. Wallis utilized “the blackboard to

demonstrate the drawing process, students were facilitated through a progression of

exercises that increased in difficulty” (Daichendt, 2009, p 33). She had students copy

master drawings as studies much like the conservative academies of the past but

emphasized personal creativity in final assignments and projects. Bill Harrington

remembers her making a comment on his use of Dali’s melting clocks in one of his

paintings as “Now, sir, that has been done before”. Her heavy black pencil was infamous.

As she circulated through the classroom, she would swoop down on a students work and

show corrections in dimension or angle with this “un-erasable” black pencil and the

student would then have to start over. She knew each one of her students and

acknowledged their individuality. She helped them reach their potential through hard

work and self-analysis. Her students don’t remember full class critiques but her

individual critiques were always positive and “life-affirming”.

The individualist, multifaceted and adaptable nature of her approach to art and life

seems to show an influence from the Bauhaus. “Froebel and Gropius’s insistence on

interconnecting all the parts to a larger whole, Itten’s theory of contrasts, Albers’s color

comparisons” (Lerner, 2005, p. 225), were all facets of Sylvia’s assignments as discussed

by each student that I interviewed. Two sketches from her college years could have been

copied from Joseph Albers cubist period (Figures 1 & 2). Her students remember learning

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contour drawing, gesture drawing, and a heavy emphasis on color study and abstract

design. Joe Romero (one of her many local students) credits Sylvia with helping him with

math. She told him “math is like artwork – there is theory, line, form, balance,

movement – it’s abstract. All mathematicians are artists that deal with abstract theory”.

She also taught him to plan backwards. He remembers her explaining that he

should “envision the finished piece and figure out how you are going to get there”. She

was teaching backward design many years before Wiggins and McTighe published their

work utilizing this theory (Understanding by Design) in 2005.

All of her students remember the colorful smocks that she wore over her very

fashionable clothes and that she always wore high heels that matched her outfits. She had

several shoes of the same style and her cousin Donna remembers that she painted them

according to what she was wearing. She would tie tiny Christmas ornaments to the front

of her skirts during Christmas and wear earrings and jewelry from found objects around

her house. She created a necklace from the tiles she was using in a bathroom remodel.

She always “pulled it off” and looked stunning. She integrated art into everything she did.

The school was also full of student artwork. Every person I spoke with

remembered the chalk, large-scale, Christmas ornament/drawings that adorned the

hallways every year (Figure 9). They were thrilled with the idea of their work being on

display and being admired and commented on by the other students and teachers. They

were also enlisted in the painting and designing of sets for the school plays. These were

quite the productions and the entire town would attend the shows. Dave Schutte was

never a student of hers in the art room but remembers her showing him how to size the

large canvas set-structures with rabbit glue to prepare them for painting. She actually

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took his hand and showed him how to stir and squeeze out the lumps and to feel what the

perfect consistency was before applying it to the surface. The art students also

participated in the paper, the yearbook, posters and classroom decorating. As far as I have

discovered, these were all extra-curricular activities.

Sylvia Stoner cared about and knew each individual student. The artwork of the

three students who shared their memories of Sylvia Stoner are direct reflections of the

diversity that she embodied (Figures 14,15,16 & 17). The creative spirit also lives on in

several of her family members. The Cornella’s Bed and Breakfast, Ore’s and Mine, in

Twin Lakes Colorado, is a work of art. Every corner, inside and out, reflects the mining

heritage, with sculptures and paintings by several family members (Figure 18). Although

Olivia Stoner stated that her mother-in-law had given up trying to make an artist out of

her, she did mention that Sylvia had given her advice about how to pick colors when

planting her garden. “Always plant the colors in threes”. She has always followed this

advice and Olivia’s backyard is a masterpiece (Figure 19). She has had artists and art

students come to paint and photograph her garden many times. Sylvia Stoner’s artistic

spirit truly lives on in everyone she touched.

CONCLUSION

With all of life’s ups and downs – economic booms and busts, political

upheavals, social change and instability - creativity and the arts seem to survive and

thrive when there is passion and honesty. Sylvia Stoner provided both of these. Art

reflects the times, the place, and the experiences of the individuals who produce it

whether it is for profit or for fun or for personal or political expression. It helps

make sense or interpret a crazy world through personal intuition and interpretation

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– whether right or wrong. An artist/teacher is someone who lives a life-style not to

be imitated but one that encourages the student to explore their own, personal

power by observing someone who is comfortable with their own differences. Sylvia

Stoner’s life was a journey of self-discovery, honesty and sharing. Her positive

attitude showed through in even the final days of her life. As she headed into that last

surgery, she told Columbya, her sister and best friend, that if she didn’t survive, to make

sure that her make-up and hair was perfect, as she knew Stoner, who had preceded her in

death, would want to see her that way - a perfectionist to the very end.

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References:

Daichendt, G. J., 2010. Artist Teacher: A philosophy for creating and teaching. Bristol, UK: Intellect, Ltd.

Daichendt, G. J., 2009. Redefining the artist-teacher. Art Education 62,5, pp 33-39.

Dewey, J., 1909. Moral principles in education. NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Fowler, C., 1996. Strong arts, strong schools: The promising potential and shortsighted disregard of the arts in American schooling. NY: Oxford University Press.

Lerner, F., 2005. Foundations for design education: Continuing the Bauhaus Vorkus vision. Art Education 46, 46 (3).

Leadville time-line. Retrieved, August 2, 2010, from: www.leadville.com/history/

Pearce, H., 2000. Discovering the first black graduate and rediscovering the first art education program of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, pp. 26-36. From Bolin, P., Blandy, D., & Congdon, K. (Ed.), 2000. Remembering others: Making invisible histories of art education visible. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association

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FIGURES

Figure 1&2 Sylvia Cornella Studies from the 1930’s. The Little Cottage Gallery, Leadville, Colorado

Figure 3. 1936. Olivia Stoner Collection, Broomfield, Co. Figure 4. Undated. Little Cottage Gallery

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Figure 5. 1937 Wooden Sculpture Figure 6. Ceramic Sculpture Olivia Stoner collection

Figure 7. Undated. Little Cottage Gallery Figure 8. Undated. Olivia Stoner collection.

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Figure 9. 1970’s. Olivia Stoner collection Figure 10. No dates. Olivia Stoner collection

Figure 11. dolly b cups. Joe Romero personal collection.

Figure 12. Garage door painting. Donna Cornella coll. Figure 13. Little Cottage Gallery

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Figure 14. Climax Mine. 2010. Bill Harrington, Leadville, CO.

Figure 15. Untitled. 2000. Joe Romero

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Figure 16. The Boxer. Undated. Terry Ryan Figure 17. Undated. Sculpture Terry Ryan

Figure 18. Undated. Ore’s and Mine B&B. Cornella family creation. Twin Lakes, Colorado.

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Figure 19. Olivia Stoner’s Garden, 2011. Broomfield, Colorado.

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silvia stoner

Documents

art teachers

art department

memory of sylvia stoner

teachers job

new teachers

inglorious teachers

good teachers

art teaching philosophy