FEATURE
THERESA WALTON: A Portrait Is Worth a Thousand Words BY KRISTEN S. SWIFT, ESQUIRE
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heresa Walton was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Newark, Delaware when she was four years old. She attended public school throughout her education. She always felt a pull towards art projects and even in elementary school she would get picked for special art projects. When she was eight years old, Theresa won a crayon contest. The prize was a giant gingerbread house. It took her family months to eat through that gingerbread house, the first of many sweet experiences. Her elementary school offered a “teacher for a day” experience where a teacher could pick a student to teach the class for a day. Theresa tenderly recalled being so excited to have been chosen to teach an art class for a day. Where others may have been intimidated, she was instead proud and excited. 18
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Theresa’s early experiences at school led her to pursue a degree in art education at the University of Delaware. Theresa graduated from college when schools in Delaware were becoming desegregated. After graduation, she began working mainly at Wilmington High School as a substitute for art teachers who were taking sabbatical during desegregation to undergo training. Theresa spent 28 years as a public school art teacher, 17 of those years at Brandywine High School. As she neared retirement, she began working at Delaware State University part-time teaching art history almost exclusively. Eventually, she left the Newark area and moved to the beach. During her transition into retirement, the pandemic started. The Delaware Art Museum Women Hall of Fame exhibit exemplifies something positive borne from the pandemic. When the pandemic began, Theresa knew she would be stuck indoors. To avoid feeling stuck sitting around inside and idling away her days she made a personal commitment to paint every day. Soon thereafter, her then-future daughter-in-law posted a masked selfie on Facebook as she was heading into her job as a nurse, with the caption: “Here I go — into the pandemic!”
You may have heard by now that there is a fantastic portrait exhibit at the Delaware Art Museum, featuring the work of Delaware’s own artist Theresa Walton. Theresa single-handedly painted 160 portraits that make up the 40-year commemorative Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame exhibit.
