Educator hosts show at NIU to benefit fund
By CRYSTAL LINDELL - Shaw Newspapers

See the video made by the NorthWest Herald about the NIU show.

Mary Telfer Holden (right) works with Joyce Rowland during a recent art class at Holden's home studio in McHenry. Holden will host an art show with Rowland and some of her other students at NIU to raise money for a scholarship fund set up after last year’s campus shootings.
Travis Haughton | Shaw

DeKALB – After the Feb. 14 shooting at Northern Illinois University last year, alumna Mary Telfer Holden felt compelled to respond.
The art teacher found a way to use her talents as a means to help. She and 17 other local artists, some her students at McHenry County and Elgin Community colleges, will show their work Saturday through Sept. 26 at Gallery 214 of the NIU School of Art. Gallery 214 is on Gilbert Way between Lucinda and College avenues in DeKalb.

Twenty percent of the profits from sales that occur during the show will go to the Forward Together Forward Scholarship Fund, set up in memory of the five students who were killed in the school’s Feb. 14 shooting.

“You hear about these tragedies, school shootings, you always feel horrible, but because I went to NIU, that brings it closer to home,” she said.

“No one wants to be in the place of the families, but I think the scholarship fund is one way that the families can feel that a small good thing happened,” Telfer Holden said.

Emily Yantis is one of the artists in the show. She plans to show mixed media work.

“I’m not doing art with the idea of selling it; I’m just doing it for my own enjoyment,” she said. “But I’m glad to be selling for this particular cause.”

Lisa Sambor, another artist in the show, will sell ceramics.

“I’m kind of sensitive to what has happened, and I just think it’s a great cause,” she said.

Other media expected to be sold at the show include watercolor, colored pencil, encaustics and acrylics. Telfer Holden said she primarily would show pastels.

If you go

What: Art Show at Northern Illinois University, with 20 percent of proceeds going to the Feb. 14 Scholarship Fund.

When: Show runs from Saturday through Sept. 26. A reception will be from 4:30–6 p.m. Sept. 18.

Where: Gallery 214 of the NIU School of Art. Information: http://www. telfleur.com

Holiday Gift for Animal Lover Gives Twice – Once to Recipient, and Again to Animals

Holiday Gift for Animal Lover Gives Twice – Once to Recipient, and Again to Animals 9/12/2007

Contact: Tania Banak, University Relations Specialist608/263-6716, banakt@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu
Date issued: September 12, 2007
MADISON – Animal-lovers are sure to appreciate a gift that benefits animal health rather than clutters their household with trinkets they don’t need. “Fitzie,” a full-color watercolor painting by artist Mary Telfer Holden, of McHenry, Ill., will be featured on this year’s Holiday Gift Card, available from the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Proceeds from sales benefit cats, dogs, horses and other animals by supporting sustained excellence at the school.For a suggested $10.00 donation per card, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine will send the donor’s choice of recipients a holiday greeting card which notes that proceeds benefit sustained excellence at the school.Recipients receive a full-color animal artwork card with a message stating that a donation was made in their name to the School of Veterinary Medicine.Each year, a different artist donates the artwork for this card.

This year’s watercolor painting, “Fitzie,” was donated by Mary Telfer Holden, a nationally-known artist from McHenry, llinois. Her animals inspire her to create new art, which can be viewed on her website (www.telfleur.com).Based on positive experience she’s had as a client of the School of Veterinary Medicine’s teaching hospital, Holden says she is pleased to help support the school through this fundraiser.“I’m excited that a lot of people will get to see my dog, Fitzie, through this painting,” Holden says. “I am very grateful that the school’s hospital helped both him and my other Sheltie, Gemma, under very stressful and scary circumstances. Both are doing great now!”The cards make ideal holiday gifts for veterinarians, friends, family, people’s pets, or for anyone that loves animals. You can download a Holiday Gift Card donation form at www.vetmed.wisc.edu, or contact the school’s Office for Advancement at 608/265-9692.

PET PROJECTS: Learn how to use your own talent from one artist’s succes

Northwest Herald April 5, 2007
By GENEVA WHITE - gwhite@nwnewsgroup.com

Is it possible to make a successful career out of creating art? The key might be finding a niche. McHenry artist Mary Telfer Holden discovered her niche nearly a decade ago when she started sketching pet portraits. When she’s not painting, drawing or running her business, Holden teaches art classes at McHenry County College and Elgin Community College. She took some time recently to chat with us about her work, the art industry and how to best capture the image of a four-legged friend.

EXACTLY HOW DID YOU GET INTO DOING PET PORTRAITS?

I really love animals. I have three dogs and a cat. What got me a good start with a lot of customers is [radio personality] Steve Dahl.I was doing pet portraits at a pet store and he happened to be there, so I did a portrait of his golden retriever and I called him on the air and asked how his wife liked it. He gave my phone number out on the air. I got 12 or 14 calls immediately. That was really exciting.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE TYPES OF MATERIALS TO USE FOR THE PORTRAITS?

I started out doing them in just pencil. Now I do watercolor or chalk pastels. Pastels are my favorite.Doing them in color is so much more fun. I also scan them and make note cards so people can have note cards or stationary with their pet’s portrait on them.

HOW DOES YOUR PET PORTRAIT BUSINESS WORK?

I ask people to either e-mail me or mail me photographs. I work from just regular snapshots. I ask them for several because I want to be able to see the pet clearly. Sometimes the lighting is wrong. With one, the dog looked gray and then brown in another one.

HAVE YOU EVER DONE LIVE SESSIONS?

Not for anyone else, but I’ve done my own dogs, just quick drawings and sketches. When you have your own animals, they’re calm around you so you get a chance to sketch them then. But I mostly work from photographs.

WHAT ARE SOME TIPS YOU CAN OFFER FOR DRAWING OR PAINTING FROM A PHOTO?

First of all, I think some people think that when you’re painting from a photograph you want to be photographic and paint it exactly the way it is. You really have to use your liberty to change it. What you’re trying to do is make it better than the photograph. You want to give it your own personality. Your own style comes out. A lot of times I’ll just use part of one photograph and another and combine them. To me, a photograph is just a guideline. Sometimes you want to leave things out. Sometimes you want to add things.

IS ART SOMETHING THAT CAN BE TOUGH TO PURSUE AS A CAREER?

I would say it’s like any small business. You are in business for yourself, so it’s important to not only find the type of art you want to do but to realize that unfortunately for artists, it’s not like you get to spend all this time in your studio. There’s marketing, physically going out and doing art shows, dealing with galleries. There are a lot of different avenues which is what I teach in my class. You might sell wholesale or retail. You might teach. There are a lot of different things you can do. The unfortunate part is most artists don’t get to sit in their studios and let someone handle all that.

ANY FINAL ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ARTISTS?

Don’t waste time thinking you’re not good enough. If you look around and see what sells, it’s not always the best artists. It’s the people who believed in themselves enough to get out there. If you feel passionate about it, I believe someone else will be able to relate to your art.

Mary Telfer Holden
by Karen Feil Managing Director
Gift & Collectibles Guild / Gift Ware News
November 2006

Breezy pen and ink drawings, with a touch of color, characterize the lighthearted cards by Mary Telfer Holden. An multi-talented artist who also handcrafts jewelry and paints watercolors, Holden lifts bits of color and pattern from her watercolors and places them as accents on her pen and ink note cards.

Notes featuring line drawn portraits of very hip young women, accompanied by a single word or a line of text—“thank you ever so…”,or “brilliant”, and “fabulous”—reflect an urban sensibility. Other notes feature whimsical cats, insects, and flowers, each with a dash of color, a word of greeting, and blank interiors. Individual cards retail at $1.25, boxes of eight are $16.00. Wholesale prints $8 each for a 5×7 inch matted print, or six unmated prints for $25. To see her work, visit www.telfleur.com. mary@telfleur.com

Mary's Prints
featured at Grand Opening of Barbados Decor Shop
October 2006

Martha Stewart Living radio
interviewed by Maggie Mistal, career coach
July 2006

Not-So-Starving-Artist,

Sunday July 9th
Mary Telfer HoldenProfessional Fine Artist and PhilanthropistMary is a professional fine artist who branched out into jewelry and stationery design using themes from her watercolor and oil paintings. She makes earrings, brooches, necklaces, bracelets and stationery, all inspired from her art. She also gives a portion of the sale proceeds to charity thru what she calls "donation ware.
"Click here for Mary's website!

There's Something About Mary... A teacher and an artist: Mary teaches watercolor and drawing at two community colleges in Northern Illinois - McHenry County College, Elgin Community College. She also teaches at the Michaels art store in McHenry, Illinois. In the fall she will be teaching two new classes called “So, you want to be an artist?” and “Art for teachers.”Mary also has an advice column for aspiring artists on her website called “Living as an artist.” She produces art show / benefits for a local no-kill pet shelter www.petsinneedmidwest.org who really need help right now.

Home Business Magazine, May/June 2005

Charitable mix
March 2005

By MICHAEL GIBBSmichaelgibbs@nwherald.com McHENRY – Mary Telfer Holden was never able to fit a jewelry class into her course schedule while a student at Northern Illinois University. Telfer Holden, who earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree in painting from NIU, went on to an 18-year career as an artist. But she never lost her interest in jewelry. Now, she is gone into business. Telfer Holden recently formed Telfleur Inc. out of an office and design studio in her McHenry home, but is making use of the Internet to give her custom jewelry broader exposure. She also has set up a way for some of the proceeds from her sales to go to pet and animal groups. Telfleur's jewelry designs are inspired by outdoors images used in many of Telfer Holden's watercolor and oil paintings, such as floral designs and summer abstract. "As many artists do, I used to have an office job," Telfer Holden said. "I often found myself bending paper clips into shapes and wanting to make earrings out of them. I bought some books and starting making designs." Telfer Holden said her bracelets, brooches, earrings, necklaces and stationery are sold at upscale boutiques and galleries in the Chicago area and Wisconsin, including the Chesterfield Galleries in Barrington, Cocoon in Geneva and J. Jeffrey Taylor Jewelry-Fine Art in Fish Creek, Wis. She also promotes and sells her products on Telfleur's World Wide Web site at www.telfleur.com. Products ordered through the site are shipped through the U.S. Postal Service. Telfleur's jewelry prices average about $30 and range from $12 for a silver ring to $52 for a silver bracelet. "I only announced the Web site about a month ago, but it already is becoming a big part of the business," Telfer Holden said late last month. "Just like inside the stores who carry my products, the Web site has surges of sales and really slow periods. That is the life of an artist. I am used to it." There is a charitable element to Telfer Holden's work, as well. Through a "Donationware" link on Telfleur's Web site, 50 percent of the sales of certain products are donated to three pet and animal charity organizes. They are: * Pets In Need – Midwest, a no-kill animal shelter based in Ringwood. * Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal and rescue operation with shelters in California and New York. * Fellow Mortals Inc., a wildlife rehabilitation facility located in Lake Geneva, Wis. "I designed certain items on the Web site for each of the organizations," Telfer Holden said. "I started out donating 25 percent. One day, I saw the Pets In Need dogs and felt I had to start giving 50 percent. "These organizations need the money so much. I want the dogs to be taken care of and hopefully adopted." Pat Klimo, who along with her husband, Rudy, founded Pets In Need – Midwest, said Telfer Holden's generosity is needed and appreciated. "It is fantastic that she helps us," Klimo said. "I would like to see many more businesses help us. "We need all the help we can get. We are taking in a lot of animals from military personnel being sent overseas and from people who have lost their homes and are living in their cars." Each of Telfer Holden's jewelry pieces is sold with a box made by artist Marjie DeLemont. The box is designed using images of Telfer Holden's watercolor prints. "Mary's products are handcrafted and different, which certain customers like," said Sherie McGowan, the owner of Cocoon, a store located in Geneva that sells jewelry, soap, sofas and several other items. "The jewelry box and card that goes with it makes for cute packaging." Telfer Holden operates Telfleur with the help of her daughter, Helen Holden, who attends McHenry County College. Lois DiPerna, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, assists Telfer Holden in teaching art and drawing classes at McHenry County College and Irving, Texas-based Michaels Stores Inc.'s location along Route 31 in McHenry.

[published on Mon, Mar 7, 2005]

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