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Pauline Viall
An Up-and-Coming Local Artist

This is the story of a young woman who spent her whole life doing something she was truly interested in, but like so many of us, ended up taking a different path. Although she enjoyed her first career as a nurse, her heart lead her in another direction...

As a creative child fascinated by animated characters and art, Pauline Viall spent hours drawing on the windows and walls of her Saginaw, Michigan home. Her parents supported her, though, and for as long as she can recall, Pauline has been interested in creating things, whether with paint, fabric or wood.

As she grew up and entered high school, she also became interested in the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals, from both an artistic and scientific point of view. Before she knew it she had graduated high school and was enrolled in the nursing program at Delta College of Saginaw. Soon she was working as an ICU nurse at Midland Hospital, where in 1992 she met Pete, now her husband.

By 1995 Pauline and Pete had married and moved to Traverse City. They bought a home on Spider Lake; he continued his career as a family physician at Partners and Family Practice while she was nursing at Munson. She spent her free time creatively, making costumes and working on craft projects. As the couple finished their basement, she dreamed of it becoming her own painting studio.

Pauline decided to feed her creative side and signed up for her first art class in 1999 at Northwestern Michigan College with local artist Jerry Gates. She loved it. Soon, she was taking more and more art classes at NMC in drawing, design and Photoshop. She took seminars at artcenter Traverse City with fantastic local artists like Charles Murphy and Chuck Foreman. Her work was accepted in the Art and Soul Gallery in downtown and through a friend’s encouragement, she began doing outdoor art fairs in the area. The ball was certainly rolling the right direction.

In 2004 Pauline quit her nursing job to officially pursue an art career. Her basement, which looks out onto Spider Lake, became Turtle Bay Studio where she has plenty to inspire her. She continued her education at NMC and in 2006 earned her Associate Degree. Although she has a fondness for watercolor, Pauline discovered how much she also enjoys acrylic painting during a workshop with Rod Lawrence. Although her current specialty is nature and animals, she is planning to continue her art education and learn more about life drawing and computer animation.

Pauline’s connections at NMC lead her to an exciting project she has just completed. One day in February she got a call from an instructor who heard that a first-time writer/publisher was looking for an illustrator for a children’s book she had written called The Comet Kid, a story about a young boy who wins a fishing competition in Northern Michigan. Pauline decided to take on the project; The Comet Kid is due to be released during the first weeks of June.

Pauline invites you to take a peek at her web site, www.paulineviall.com. You can see and purchase some of her beautiful depictions of up north scenery in pieces such as “A Walk in The Woods,” “Sunshine Indoors,” “Three Daisies” and “Spider Lake Fishing.” The Comet Kid and prints from it can soon be ordered, there, as well. (Be sure to look for The Comet Kid in stores throughout Traverse City or on the Stroll™ website - click here for more info!) In addition, Pauline’s work is available at Art and Soul Gallery.