The Tea Party This table is set for a Tea Party honoring Beth Lupkes, Lawrence Lupkes, Doris Smith, and Gertrude Lupkes given by Tea Hoppe, the grateful hybridization of their outstanding artistic talents, noble character traits, and loving commitment to making me the person I am today. Please join me for the most memorable Tea Party I will ever have.
The Rest of Me, 18 X 22, acrylic, Taho, 2015
Grandma Smith’s Work on Paint-by-numbers, acrylic, 18X22, Doris Smith, n.d.
Working With Grandma Smith, mixed media, 18X22, Taho, 2015
Original kindergarten school picture, 1973
The Tea Party Tammy Hoppe Family Migration Story “You’re the worst cutter I’ve ever seen, Tammy” (Grandpa John, personal communication, 1977). Words I will never forget. Today they make me giggle; 37 years ago they challenged me to step up my workmanship. My grandmother, Gertie Lupkes, John’s wife and my father’s mother, was teaching me how to sew a real garment using a real pattern for the first time. She always had patience for my inquisitive nature; Grandpa John did not. Grandma Gertie was a seamstress her whole life. She moved to the United States as a very young girl and learned to sew out of necessity. First, sewing was a means to keep herself and her siblings in decent clothes and, second, it was an income for the family. Gertie sewed clothes, did mending, and made quilts until the age of 93. She passed away at 94, but during that last year of life she spent in the nursing home directed by my sister, I would stop in with scraps of fabric—recycled, up cycled, and forged from her very own scraps—and recruit her guidance in making a quilt for the poor babies. Gertie was always using scraps to make quilt gifts for the “old people” or the “poor babies.” Grandma Doris Smith, my mother’s mother, lived near McConnelsville, Ohio. We did not see her often so I knew her best through her art.
Grandma Smith was a very well rounded, talented artist. She dabbled in several different media and was quite skilled at whatever she tried. I was her oldest grandchild, so whenever she began a new project idea for the grandchildren, I always got the first one. Often I was the only grandchild to get one because after mastering the first one, she would be on her way to the next creative idea. Plus, even though I would get the prototype of one of her creations, occasionally even mine would be only partially done. Grandma Smith’s home on the Muskingum River in the southern hills of Ohio was always a fantastic place to explore nature. If the kids were not playing or messing with Grandma’s arts supplies, we were canoeing on the river and hiking in the hills. There were always great stories to be found or made up about the Ohio wilderness. My younger cousins, whom I did not usually want along anyway, would report to the adults the scary stories Tammy (T or Tea) had told them about the legends of the wild. The penalty must have been worth it, because I only remember all the good times. Beth Smith grew up in Zanesville, Ohio and went to a Catholic school. She graduated from cosmetology school and worked as a stylist by day and go-go dancer by night. She had an innate interest in the fine arts and creating, but even by her middle twenties she still had not found her true artistic interest. She says that to see photographs of her early adult clothes, makeup, and hair is to see clear evidence of her creative side, and that is why most of those photographs are nowhere to be found.
Other signs of Beth’s artistic side did eventually show themselves after she met Lawrence Lupkes, an airman in the United States Air Force. Lawrence spent four years in the USAF during the Vietnam Conflict, volunteering for combat. The USAF would not allow this, though, because of his exceptional math and drafting skills. He spent much of his USAF career doing desk work. After his commitment to the service, Lawrence took an acrylic landscape painting class. He then moved on to try still life painting. Lawrence could make this paint and paintbrush do wonderful things. Seeing this and the enjoyment he had with painting, Beth revisited her interest in painting with oils. For a few years both Beth and Lawrence (B & L) painted pictures of photographs found in nature magazines. Beth evolved into more of an abstract artist while Lawrence and his calculating math mind developed outstanding realism techniques. They did not keep most of their work. Their interest was in the process more than the product. Usually they would allow me to create my own masterpieces right over top of theirs. However, once farming income went bad, painting for fun came to an end. After that the only thrill with painting was in recoating the exterior of the old farmhouse and matching outhouse. Once I started school, new artistic adventures came back into my life. In kindergarten through seventh grade I had art class every three days. Art was something I always did very well in; it was easy for me. In high school
I signed up for at least one art class per semester: painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, and jewelry making. Then I headed off to college. I got a medical assistant and lab technician degree under the assumption that art was not a viable career choice. Although my science and math classes were a lot of fun, I felt the void of not enough artmaking in my life, so after having two babies, I went back to school to become an art teacher. To make myself sellable I also majored in math and English/language arts. I didn’t finish my math degree but began my teaching career as a high school English teacher. As soon as an art teaching position opened within a decent drive from home, I applied and got it. Finally, I was an art teacher. This art education career had a lot of potential and I had all kinds of potential to offer right back. By now I have taught art at all age levels, was named Iowa K – 12 Art Teacher of the Year (2006-2007), was an education professor for a year (2010-2011), and am on track to becoming an art education professor as well as a locally known artist. Life has shed many blessings on me, and I often ponder these blessings over a cup of tea. I begin each day of teaching art with a cup of tea, refill my teacup three or four times throughout the school day, and end my day with a bedtime tea. Today I extend to my inspirational and caring parents and grandmothers an invitation to my tea party in their memories.
My Grandmothers’ Place Settings Side-by-side, installation, Taho, 2015
The Tea Party, My Own Setting, installation, Taho, 2015
Tea Hoppe’s Place Setting, installation, Taho, 2015 My own place setting includes a number of personally important things to me. The photo of my sister and me is from her wedding; I made her wedding dress and all the bridesmaid dresses. The family photo was taken at the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis where my son was based in the USAF. The photo includes my sister’s family, my own family, and our parents. The third photo is of my husband and me in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The tools and media I chose to best represent me are watercolors, a stained glass cutter, acrylic paintbrushes, and my favorite pen to both write and draw with. My table runner is the mint green chiffon, cotton, satin, and lace nightgown I made with my Grandma Gertie in the first ever lesson on sewing she gave me. Finally, I chose this plate portrait because it shows the same hairstyle I wore for my sister’s and my daughter’s weddings.
The Tea Party, Grandma Gertie’s Setting, installation, Taho, 2015
Grandma Gertie’s Place Setting, installation, Taho, 2015 I made Grandma Gertie’s plate portrait of a younger Gertie that I never knew. Her tools of trade are her sewing supplies: scissors, seam ripper, pin coushin, thread, measuring tape, and straight pin needles. The photographs are of Gertie alone, with Grandpa John, and with Grandpa John and their four children. Her table runner in the patchwork quilt I made with her in the nursing home during the last year of her life. It's the last quilt she/we ever made.
The Tea Party, Grandma Smith’s Setting, installation, Taho, 2015
Grandma Doris’s Place Setting, installation, Taho, 2015 Grandma Smith taught me to crochet so her table runner is a crocheted quilt I made and her artistic tools include yarn, scissors, and crochet needles. The images are of my grandma and of her parents, Mammy and Pappy Haynes, whom I did have the pleasure of knowing for several years before they passed away. Her plate portrait is of the young, classy lady I remember from my childhood.
The Tea Party, My Mother’s Setting, installation, Taho, 2015
My Mother’s Place Setting, installation, Taho, 2015 I made my mother’s plate portrait an expression of her eccentric hair and personal style. The tools of her artistic trade include oil paints, palette knife, and paintbrushes. The images are of my mother in Egypt, her wedding picture with blue hair, and her with my father and me at my first birthday party. My mother's table runner is a piece of sheer, shimmery, iridescent taffeta and again represents her abstract, eccentric style.
The Tea Party, My Father’s Setting, installation, Taho, 2015
My Father’s Place Setting, installation, Taho, 2015 My father painted acrylic landscapes and still life so I included some of the tools he would have used in his art. I painted his younger sister's portrait on the dinner plate for two reasons: Dad and she look a lot alike in childhood pictures and I wanted the place setting portraits to be of female faces only. The other photographs include my father as a USAF airman, himself as an infant, and me as an infant with him and my mother and sister. The backdrop to his setting is an acrylic painting of a bird and his table runner is a patriotic quilt I made in honor of his service.
Section Two Additional Guest Representation: The Chairs This instillation is set up in my parents’ livingroom while they are wintering in a warmer climate. My mother has an enormous collection of beautiful and unique chiars. I arranged an assortment of her chairs around the table center piece and placed additional commemorative objects to each chair. Having been bar owners, my parents and my Grandma Smith were quite experienced in adult beverages (Figures 1, 3, 4, & 5). My Grandma Gertie simply liked a hot totty every night before bed (Figure 2). In her memory we all sipped a hot totty around her burial site on a cold early December afternoon. Additional commemorative objects include the sewing machine and chair on which my Grandma Gertie taught me to sew (Figure 6), the woman’s dress form on which my Grandma Smith taylored clothes (Figure 7), the high chair my father was fed in (Figure 8), the Barbie clothes I made and collected for my one and only childhood doll (Figure 9), the German soldier hat my father’s grandfather wore (Figure 8), the photo journal my mother made about Australia (Figure 10), the beautiful portrait of my father playing Santa (Figure 11), the family memory-quilt my aunts had made for my mother (Figure 12), the old school house chair from the country school my father went to (Figure 13), and the food that sustained us in hard times: peanutbutter, pickles, and cheese (Figure 14).
Figure 1. I prefer wine to drink with an evening meal.
Figure 3. Mother used to sip on sweet creamy dessert drinks.
Figure 2. Grandma Gertie never went to bed without drinking a hot totty first.
Figure 4. Father had always been a beer man until his first tour of wine country.
Figure 5. Grandma Doris enjoyed a martini or a daiquiri.
Figure 6. Grandma Gertie's sewing machine and chair.
Figure 8. My father's high chair and his grandfather's German soldier hat.
Figure 7. Grandma Smith's dress form.
Figure 9. My Barbie clothes collection.
Figure 12. Mom's family tree quilt.
Figure 10. My mother's photo journal about Australia.
Figure 13. My sketch on my father's country school chair.
Figure 14. The luxuries of peanut butter, pickles, and cheese. Figure 11. My father in his usual Santa role during Christmas.
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Dinner by the fireplace.
My handmade ceramic teapot.
Tea Hoppe’s place setting for tea.