Carol Peters, 2010 Woman of the Year
After a 30-year career as a painting and drawing instructor at
Gilroy High School, Gilroyan Carol Peters is
”
retired.
”
She’s now a full-time creative think tank, spending her days
surrounded by canvases, brushes and palletes.
Carol Peters, 2010 Woman of the Year
What she does: After a 30-year career as a painting and drawing instructor at Gilroy High School, Gilroyan Carol Peters is “retired.”
She’s now a full-time creative think tank, spending her days surrounded by canvases, brushes and palletes. Her signature style is that of bright, vibrant colors – such as the turquoise-hued cougar mascot mural she painted in the lobby of Christopher High School.
Peters has illuminated the community through public artwork on display in the Gilroy Museum, Gilroy Library, Willey House Cultural Center and Ascencion Solorsano Middle School. Her latest contribution in Spring 2010, which incorporated GHS art students and took more than seven months to complete, was the creation of a facade improvement for the former Leedo Gallery at 7529 Monterey Street in downtown.
“I just felt like downtown needed some life to it, you know?” she said. “It was a beautification process.”
Oddly enough, Peters wanted to be a journalist when she was growing up and wasn’t remotely interested in art until she took a class out of high school.
“I changed my major, and thought, ‘This is what I want to do all my life,’ ” she said. It must have been fate: Peters’ father Curley Tomey, who passed away in 1977, was a famous cowboy artist and well-known blacksmith in Gilroy who crafted silver bridles, bits, spurs and jewelry.
When she’s not working with acrylics or engrossed in a pending masterpiece, Peters is like Bob Ross from the Public Broadcasting Service show “Joy of Painting” – the Gilroy 2.0 version. She stars in her own TV series “Carol on Creativity,” an educational art show filmed in her home studio that airs on GavTV 18.
Why she received the award: Peters is an active member of the Gilroy Foundation and has served on the Arts and Culture Commission for more than nine years. A poster child for the impact creativity, curiosity and inspiration can impart on a student, she continues to be a strong advocate for the arts in education. Chipping away at schools’ creative resources due to budget setbacks, she said, is the worst thing that could possibly happen.
In her own words: “Art is a way to look at somebody inside … you learn about their soul through the arts. Beautiful composition makes you feel. It moves you. It teaches about humanity in a way that nothing else can. It’s a universal.”
