From principal to glass artist: God has a plan

“I was fearful,” the 59-year-old said. “Every year, I said, ‘This will be my last year (teaching); maybe I will go part-time.’ But I worried I wouldn’t have enough money to pay my bills. … I would sign the intent form (to return to teach).”
    

Jump to March 2019, when Brown’s daughter, Allyson, who was living in Seattle for grad school, finally convinced her to trust her faith and talent.
    

“She told me, ‘Mom, what are waiting for? Half of your life has been helping girls pursuing their dreams and telling them to go for it. Why are you so scared? Just do it.’ I got off FaceTime and signed the form and said I would not return.”
    

Brown said she felt free once she retired from school; it gave her time to devote to her art. Co-workers, students and others around her reinforced that decision with constant encouragement. For example, school counselor Cathy Green-Miner gave her a vision board to do. Artists Terrance Osborne and LuChana Keller-Evans sent motivational words, as did Paulette Lizano (Lizano’s Glass Haus) and others, such as framer Bernadette Gildspinel, who owns La Belle Galerie, and her printer John Maloney.
    

“God was telling me, ‘I am putting these people in your life, so you could trust in my word.’ And, that helped me,” she said. “I didn’t want to wait until my late 60s to pursue my passion. Everything just came together. I finished everything for school by mid-June.” 
 

Advanced in 2004
    

Brown, a 1978 graduate of St. Mary’s Academy, earned a psychology degree from Loyola University, then graduated from Tulane School of Social Work. She was hired at her alma mater as a social worker and academic advisor. In 2004, she became the first lay principal in the history of the Catholic school run by the Sisters of the Holy Family.
    

“It was a wonderful experience,” Brown said. “I am still close to a lot of the girls. They’ve gone from being 16- to 17-year-olds to now being 30 and successful leaders in the community.”
    

Never having taken an art class while at St. Mary’s or in college, Brown said a friend who was taking classes in stained glass at John Sullivan Studio invited her to attend in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Her hidden talent began to blossom under the tutelage of Sullivan and Alain Cuneo. Brown developed her own style in mosaic art.  
    

“Mosaic art allowed more creativity than stained glass,” she said.
    

But, trying to fit art into her busy schedule was difficult. In fact, after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, she stopped her passion completely until 2015. She then started a website: www.petekareninadesigns.com.
    

“I would do a little piece here or there, but nothing on a large scale,” she said. “I worked so hard at school that  by the time I got home 6 or 7 o’clock I was exhausted. I didn’t have that creative flow.”
    

She realized she couldn’t do both, and began converting a sun room in her Slidell home into a studio that offers her light into a backyard haven of a pool, trees and lots of nature, since her backyard overlooks a wooded area. She had some savings and started investing in art glass.
 

Professional debut
    

By November 2019, she was ready to let the world into her soul with her first exhibit, “In Full Bloom,”  more than 20 pieces of mosaic, reflective glass art focused mainly on women’s faces. 
    

“I had a wonderful show,” she said. “Besides the birth of my daughter, that was one of the best days of my life. It was a wonderful continuation of what I feared so much, God blessed me when I had taken that fear away.”
    

Art was instilled in her by her parents, who took her and her sister Lisa, who is a year older, to cultural venues as children. Childhood dress up play with Lisa using the red lipstick of her mother, Mattie Jane Ross, inspired her company’s name – Pete Karenina Designs – a name Lisa used to call her. The use of red lipstick was visible on the subjects of her first exhibit. 
    

“I wanted to show freedom,” and her love of flowers she said, imbuing each piece with flowing hair filled with flowers reflecting how people blossom out of struggles.
    

“The majority of the pieces had no eyes. A lot of pieces have mirrored glass. The eyes are the entrance to the soul, so I wanted people to look at themselves, the hardships that they are going through, especially women, and realize that God gives us another day to live out his purpose, his love. That’s what my artwork projects.”
 

COVID-19 hits
    

It’s taken even more faith for her to continue her craft during the COVID-19 pandemic since her plan to sell her works at various festivals, including French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest, fell through. But, she’s getting a lot of creativity from the nature she witnesses daily in her backyard.
    

“You can’t really go to all the places you used to go to get inspiration, so that’s been different right now,” she said. “But, sitting in my yard, I get a lot of inspiration in nature. I reflect and talk to God and thank God for blessing me with a wonderful life and wonderful family and for blessing me to step out in faith.”
    

Brown has been reflecting on her next projects, wanting to capture what’s going on now, letting people know that God is still with us and that we are never alone. 
    

“I can do all things through God who strengthens me,” she said. “I try to live my life like that. You are going to come across hardships.
    

“I don’t want the work to represent death, despair and hopelessness. I want it to reflect our lives and how we connect with people, ourselves and nature and, most importantly, how we connect with our faith and God. I want to bring happiness and joy and light and life to people. … It is my hope that when people are transitioning into their new life, God is there with them. They are not to fear.”
    

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.