Becky Mannschreck
Art is a family affair for Rebecca Mannschreck
Art is a family affair for Broken Arrow exhibitor
by Heather Warlick Published: April 27, 2013 12:00 AM CDT Updated: April 27, 2013 12:00 AM CDT
Growing up the daughter of well-known oil painter Katy Kay Bonner, Rebecca Mannschreck couldn't wait to become an artist herself.
“I grew up coming to this show for several years and couldn't wait to be an accepted artist, too,” Mannschreck said of the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts.
Her family was originally from Lawton, but the 53-year-old now lives in Broken Arrow.
Her mother's art career was a family affair, Mannschreck said.
Her father, Punk Bonner, would wrap the pieces and load up the van for shows.
He'd set up and break down the exhibits, and much of the time, the family would travel to the shows all together.
But it wasn't until her mother became ill with a respiratory disease in the 1990s that Mannschreck really began expressing her own artistic side.
She'd become a stay-at-home mom after a career as a social studies teacher.
When her mom took sick, Mannschreck wanted to help her continue to paint, so she'd set up a palette, do the background and the harder strokes herself, then let her mother take over.
Mannschreck's own artistic talent started to shine through and her mother encouraged her to do her own paintings.
“So we were literally doing shows together, and the last show we did together was when she passed away,” Mannschreck said.
That last show was in Tulsa in 1997.
“We were all together. It was beautiful. It's sad, but it's absolutely beautiful,” Mannschreck said.
Expressing emotion
Now, Mannschreck spends most of her free time painting, though she prefers acrylics to the oils her mother loved.
She found that by sketching with charcoals then using acrylic paints over the drawings, she could express the emotions she said had been pent up for years.
“When your kids get older, what they're going through starts affecting you. Either you keep it inside or you can express it,” she said.
“Facing Fear” is an example of this expression. The painting is of a man whose eyes, full of a deep fear, seem to follow the viewer.
“As a mother, you face fear with your children — what they're going to do. You don't have a lot of control,” Mannschreck said.
“It comes out in the eyes. You see the different emotions that I was going through and feeling. His eyes seem to follow you, and fear seems to always follow you, so you have to face it, (and decide) what you are going to do about it.”
Still a family affair
Art is still a family affair for Mannschreck.
Her sister, Katy Beth Chostner, and Chostner's daughter came from their home in Colorado to be with Mannschreck during this, her second year at the Festival of the Arts.
“It's fun to watch her evolve and do new stuff and learn, soak it in like a sponge,” Chostner said. “She got mom's talent for painting. I got dad's talent for packing a show.”
As he always did for their mother, the sisters' father on Sunday will come help break down the show, pack it up and make it ready for the next festival.
Mannschreck's art is on exhibit at booth 16B at the festival and she is a member of 50 Penn Place Art Gallery.
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