The Hillsdale Free Public Library is pleased to exhibit the artwork of Lois Fonde – watercolor and colored-pencil paintings as well as drawings in the Meeting Room Gallery, plus handmade greeting cards in the lobby’s Glass Display Cases.
About the artist:
Although she hesitates to call herself an artist, Lois Rusch-Fonde of Hillsdale has studied watercolor and drawing with George Miller, John Ahern, and Roberta Rosenthal, among others.
Saul Raskin, a noted Yiddish artist whose studio was in the Greenwich Village building in New York City that Lois and her family lived in, thrust the first paintbrush into her hands when she was about age five. He continued to encourage Lois in her painting, as did illustrator Garth Williams, another neighbor whose children she babysat. As a youngster, she won “Best in Show” in her category for her work exhibited in NYC’s Washington Square Park’s Annual Art Festival.
When her family moved to Dumont in her early teens, Lois continued pursuing her interest in art in high school; however, that was put on hold after her marriage and subsequent child-rearing years. Arts and crafts, paper crafting, and needlework were her choices for a time.
For several years preceding her retirement and especially since, Lois has become dedicated to developing as an artist by taking several classes/workshops a week. She has exhibited for several years and won awards at Van Saun Park’s “Art in the Park” show and Catskill Art Society’s Member’s Exhibit, as well as Tenafly Senior Center’s biannual Art Show. Lois has also exhibited and won several awards at District and State levels for her drawings, paintings, and papercrafts at New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Club events.
Lois was a resident of Dumont for more than 50 years, has grown children, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Widowed for several years, she and her husband, Phil, married four years ago and enjoy living in Hillsdale.
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