Artbeat artist draws Greene County calendar by hand
Nelson, who is an artist at the local Artbeat Gallery on High Street in Waynesburg, said she takes time out of each year, spending numerous hours over the course of the year hand-drawing each picture above the dates on the calendar. She also hand-draws small pictures within certain dates to signify what they are, such as Cupid on Valentine’s Day, or a smiling pumpkin for Halloween.
she draws for that respective month.
“People will buy 25 calendars to give them away, either to family and friends, or whoever comes by for Christmas,” Nelson said. “It’s like their gift of Greene County to whoever is passing through their life.”
The one aspect of the calendar that ties directly to Waynesburg University signifies the 250th anniversary of the founding of Carmichaels, according to the description in the calendar. The picture for June is of Greene Academy, which served as the educational center of the county until Waynesburg College was founded in 1849.
“These things go all over the world,” she said. “We have customers all over the place. A lot of them are [former Greene County members]…people that leave here take the calendar with them, and then their friends buy it for them to remind them of home.”
“I’ve watched my own children grow up [and] my family grow up getting this calendar,” said Nelson. “It’s been two generations of people getting this calendar that are now coming back and buying it. It feels like it makes everybody
one big family.”