In the Beginning
GETTING THE PLAIN WHITE inserts from her mother’s new hosiery packages were a particular delight for Ginger Lou Fulton as a child. They were blank canvases her. “I started out with pencils and lined writing paper,” she recalls. And when she was about twelve years old, her mother took her to an art class, “I was the only child in a class of adults. That was when I began oil painting,” she remembers. Later she added watercolor and acrylic painting to her creative expressions. She still loves to do oil and acrylic paintings, even though they are not her main forms of art anymore.
Ginger Lou’s artistic flare varies. It can be found in expressions of designed scroll saw patterns, glass bead making, jewelry design, fiber-arts, hand-painted fine china, porcelain tiles and even pyrography (wood-burning). About fifteen years ago she began working in clay and mixed media. “I like to try out new mediums – some become keepers while others remain just a one-time adventure,” Fulton states.
Every medium that she has ever worked with has influenced all of her creations in other mediums. Ginger Lou notes in retrospect, that her creations are most often a combination of ART and WORDS. This is consciously unintentional at the time of creating for her, only an observation after the fact. She’s also realized that she likes to work free-form… no rules or restraints.
Full Expression
Fulton’s Broken Hearts are her original creation. It is her way to honor the precious memory of deceased loved ones. Broken Hearts are hand-formed from clay and go through multiple firings at differing temperatures during the creating process. They are designed with an “injury” hole in them with a scar-patch partially covering the hole, and are personalized with the lost loved one’s name and a Bible verse.
Originally, she made them for members of The Childhood Cancer Community whose child had lost their battle with cancer, she eventually expanded to any loved one that dies. “I have created hundreds of these, and I try to keep a supply made, waiting personalization.” she adds.
Plate created for the Southern Crescent’s oldest living person, Maggie Kit.
Even after becoming a featured artist at Arts Clayton Gallery, winning several art competitions and one of those being first place in a national show, Fulton’s greatest accomplishment is her published series of books for children, sixteen in all. “I learned a great deal during those years. Because the books I wrote had to fall into a certain format, X number of pages and illustrations. I had to learn how to make my story fit into the allotted space, how to be very specific with wording, and how to edit and improve upon my original thoughts,” she remembers.
The Influence of Art
Art has a central influence in Ginger Lou’s life. She can’t ever remember a time that art wasn’t really important to her happiness or survival. She can remember from a very early age closely studying illustrations in books, mentally dissecting the lines and shapes – this was long before she’d learn how to read. “As a child she seldom went without a tablet and pencil by her side,” Fulton recalls. This is the influence that makes her an artist’s artist.