Know Your Neighbors – Gladys Goldstein
Thank you to Clark Semmes for this 6th installment of his 2,361 part series, Know Your Neighbors:
When you find something you love to do, why stop? Nationally recognized Mt. Washington artist Gladys Goldstein has been creating wonderful paintings for more than seven decades and despite recent injuries to her back, shoulders, and thumb, she has no intention of stopping. With her injured thumb, Gladys can no longer hold up a paint brush with one hand, so she uses her left hand to support her right. But no amount of inconvenience or injury can keep her from painting for long.
Gladys began studying art and technique at the Maryland Institute (now known as MICA) at the age of nine and continued there through high school. She had her first art exhibition at the age of 12. Later exhibitions included shows at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Corcoran. Today, Gladys paints in a home designed around her large, light filled studio on the second floor. There she creates the nature-inspired abstractions for which she is best known, which incorporate materials as varied as brightly colored foil candy wrappers and burlap cloth. As one Baltimore Sun critic put it, her work “is like looking through layers of filmy colored veils with one color moving into the next.”
Gladys has been so prolific over the years that in 2004 she donated 300 paintings to the University of Maryland. One of those paintings was loaned to Comptroller Peter Franchot’s office where it lent color and cheer to the Louis Goldstein building. Curious about its origins, Peter sought out Gladys and later threw a reception honoring her for a lifetime of artistic creation.
Mt. Washington has always been home to many talented artists. At one point in time, Gladys palled around with two other notable local artists, Jacob Glushakow and Herman Maril. Now Gladys is inspiring a new crop of Mt. Washington artists, including next door neighbor Joel Cohen. For more images of Gladys’ art, go to Google and search on Gladys Goldstein, Artist.
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