Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Marlinton’s Peggy Owens is known for her bright, colorful glass artwork and her passion for education. Whether she is creating art to sell at the 4th Avenue Gallery as well as various festivals or leading art classes at First Friday and through the Artisans Co-op, Owens has a frenetic zeal for art in the community.
An unknown member of the community saw a spark in Owens and nominated her for the West Virginia Emerging Artist award which is presented by the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History.
It was only surprising to Owens when she received the award.
“I was floored because they don’t usually give it to old people,” she said. “An emerging artist is something that people are starting out in their career. Whoever nominated me said that even though I was older than your average emerging artist – I was only four in art years, like dog years.”
Owens never set out to be an artist. As a student at Pocahontas County High School, she immersed herself in music, with the thought that she would be a musician one day.
“I have never taken an art class in my life because when I was up at the high school I wanted to be a music major,” she said. “I was one of Charlie Fauber’s, so I took band. I took choir. I was in jazz choir. I was in the jazz band. I took instrumental every year so I could either practice for All-State or learn to play a different instrument.”
In college, she found her passion for elementary education and was fortunate to find a job she loved in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Owens recalls that, in college, a professor told her class to dream big and design a classroom, regardless of cost. She kept that plan and was able to implement it with her preschool class.
“At the time we were doing it, I thought, ‘man, if this isn’t the dumbest thing’ because who’s going to have an unlimited budget?” she said. “But, of course, I never throw anything away. So when we moved out to Indianapolis and the job came open, and I got it, they said, ‘this is a federally-funded program, and we want to use you as a showcase; spare no expense.’
“I pulled out my list,” she added, laughing.
Owens was the teacher for five years for the first at-risk preschool in the state of Indiana when she thought she could help more people as a principal. She moved up the ranks and realized shortly after, she missed the classroom.
“I hated it,” she said. “I don’t like pantyhose; I don’t like dressing up; I don’t like going to meetings; I don’t like to discipline. And nobody ever comes to the principal with a child and says, ‘he’s been really good, do something to him.’ It was just like wearing a target all the time, and I finally went to them and I said, ‘you know, I want you to put me back in the classroom.’”
Owens returned to elementary education and taught first grade for several years before returning to Pocahontas County. She and her husband, Mark, came in during the fall break, and Owens noticed there was a position open at Hillsboro Elementary School. She was planning to retire soon and this was a part-time job, so she threw her hat into the ring and got the job.
It was her first encounter with art.
“It was art, music and phys. ed.,” she said. “It was so much fun, but I knew it was only going to be that one year.”
Then superintendent of schools Terrence Beam worked with Owens on moving her to another position – this time at Marlinton Middle School. There, she was the art and gifted teacher. Although she was an elementary teacher, she decided to take a chance.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. When it was time for the schools to return to in-person education, Owens decided it was time to retire.
Although she left the public school classroom, she was bitten by the art education bug and started teaching classes through the Artisan’s Co-op and Community Wellness Center.
Owens said her jobs in the Pocahontas County Schools system led her to art and are part of the reason she is now an established artist.
“On my first cards that I passed out, I put ‘Peggy Owens, Accidental Artist’ because had it not been for that, I would have never done art,” she said. “What really started me off was Trish McNaull brought me this bucket of glass and a couple of frames that Roger [I think she meant Jim] VanReenen had made and said, ‘Peggy, I tried to do this, but it’s just something I found I don’t want to do. Will you take this and make it into abstract stained glass for me?’”
Not one to ever admit she doesn’t know how to do something, Owens took on the challenge and made her first two glass art pieces. It took some time, but she found her groove and all the right angles, to make something beautiful.
“The funny thing is, I can remember Kathy McGee in geometry in high school and thinking, ‘I will never use this stuff in real life,’” Owens said. “When I started looking at the glass, I had to measure the angles to make sure the pieces fit together. So my apologies to Kathy McGee, turns out I really did use [geometry]. It just took forty years.”
Unlike traditional stained glass which uses lead caming and soldering, Owens combines her glass fusing skills with layers and covers everything in a layer of epoxy to seal in all the elements of her glass mosaics and collages that incorporate glass, miscellaneous objects and stickers.
Most of Owens’ pieces are framed and can be displayed on walls or as suncatchers, but she has also branched out into the three-dimensional realm with items like her Mountain Mama bust covered in blue and gold glass, beads and stickers, or her rainbow colored guitar.
There is no limit to Owens’ imagination and talent. She not only continues to expand her personal art career, but is also working hard to get Pocahontas County declared a Certified Arts Community. She has been writing grants and working with other artists to offer classes, organize events and truly celebrate all the art and artists Pocahontas County has to offer.
Owens’ artwork can be found at the Pocahontas County Artisans Co-op 4th Avenue Gallery in the Depot, Handmade West Virginia Market in Marlinton, Hillsboro Public House, Plants, Etc. in Lewisburg, Allegheny Highlands Art Center and at Tea with Tarsha in Indianapolis, Indiana.