Studio Tour Artist Martha Sechler

~by Bob Gustin

Two of Martha Sechler’s passions— storytelling and watercolor painting— somehow merged into one over the years and continue to thrive, even as she retires from her position at the Brown County Public Library.

“I see pictures when I’m telling the stories and I hear the stories when I’m creating the painting,” she said. It is that emotional and creative interplay, perhaps, that lends a unique quality to both.

Martha came into both skills naturally.

Raised in Goshen, Ind., her mother was a housewife who would read books and articles, then give reviews and interpretations of them to local clubs or groups. Her father was a printer with an artistic bent, and both parents were avid readers.

Majoring in education, Martha earned a degree from the University of Evansville in 1969, but many of her formative experiences came during summer vacations doing service projects.

She grew up in the Mennonite church, which she still appreciates because it was “open to all kinds of people from all over the world.” The church offered summer volunteer programs, and Martha took advantage of them.

She worked on a Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana, setting up camps and Bible schools. A summer in Denver found her working at a home for mentally challenged children and adults, then at nursing homes.

“It was an eye-opener,” she said. “I just spent time with them and listened to their stories.”

Later, she volunteered in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador where she lived with local families.

After college, she went to work on a Hopi reservation in Arizona through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, teaching second, third, and fourth graders. It was there she began painting with watercolors, and took classes through Northern Arizona University and the University of Montana.

“I left because I felt it was the right thing to do. The teaching needed to be done by indigenous people.”

She spent 1974-76 as a volunteer for the Peace Corps in Jamaica, working as a teacher trainer for “basic” schools, which she described as akin to preschools operated by individuals. The requirements for teachers, she said, was to be 17 or older, and be able to read and write.

There, she said she learned she had to teach teachers how to read books to children.

“I thought, this is it, picture books.”

Since her contract prohibited her from making a profit on activities, she created and sold paintings, using the money to buy picture books and donate them to the basic schools.

At IU, she met her husband Kim. They had a class together, and she remembers him sitting in the library with a book about Native Americans on the table in front of him.

She asked about it, and he later asked her out for a date.

They were married in 1979, and have two adult sons and three grandchildren.

Kim was a teacher and principal for several Brown County elementary schools over a long career which included a short stint in Monroe County.

Martha, meanwhile, was the children’s librarian at Bartholomew County Public Library in Columbus, then was hired as the elementary school librarian in the Columbus school district.

She retired from that job in 2007, and went to work part-time at the Brown County Public Library. As part of her duties there, she helped the children’s librarian and held regular storytelling sessions.

Over the years, she has told stories to thousands of children, including different generations of the same families.

She plans to continue storytelling sessions to children even after retirement.

She does not read the stories aloud to children, but instead interprets them in her own words.

“Mostly I find my stories in folklore,” she said. “If it appeals to me, then I tell it.”

One or two of the stories she tells are embellished from her personal life, but most are from elsewhere.

“What I tell the kids is that the stories are the truth. Some have happened and some have not.”

Another part of Martha’s creative life is in her artwork. Her Lightspinner Studio in the Helmsburg area has been part of the annual October Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour for 10 years. Her creations include watercolor scenes and artwork on gourds (no, she quickly adds, her gourds aren’t meant to be birdhouses).

Though she sometimes uses photographs as an initial idea for a painting, the process is spontaneous, she said, and she begins a painting not knowing what’s going to happen or what the final result will be. Some of the themes come from fantasy, or from mythology or cultural themes from Native Americans, Latin America, Africa or Asia.

Gourds may be an unusual medium for her work, but they become integral to it.

“I think when you use a gourd, it’s not just the shape, but the colors and contours become part of the work. The gourd kind of tells me what to do.”

In transforming gourds, she uses paint and inks, woodburning, sculpting and other techniques, as well as adding seedpods, grapevine, or other materials from nature.

Martha Sechler can be reached by phone at 812-703-3129, by email <lightspinner13@gmail. com> or on Facebook at LightSpinnerStudio.

BROWN COUNTY STUDIO TOUR
A total of 23 artists and 15 studios are part of the 25th annual Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour, to be held during the month of October, 2023. All studios are open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Wednesdays–Saturdays in October. Some are also open 10 a.m.6 p.m. on Sundays. Others are open year-round by appointment. Information on the free, selfguided tour can be found on maps distributed at many locations in Brown County or on its website, <bcstudiotour.com>.