Ventura County Opens Eligibility to Retirees

It’s never too late to find your artistic talents and first-time NAP participant, Alison O’Neill is a perfect example.  After spending 21 years as a Deputy Public Defender for the County of Ventura, she retired and took her very first art class at Ventura College.  While Alison admits that she had never taken any art classes in high school or college as she never intended to go into a profession that was related to the arts, she has found new passion in her creative side.  “Going to art classes including drawing, color and design, and watercolor, was so invigorating after leaving the criminal defense world. It is a beautiful new world!”

 

After discovering her artistic talents, Alison was presented with the opportunity to participate in the Ventura County NAP Show, which only opened their eligibility up to include retired employees in 2015.  She decided to embrace the ability to have her work displayed and entered her original mixed media piece entitled “Frank”.  To her surprise, the piece was very well received, being awarded Best of Show in Ventura County and is now in the running to be named ‘Best of the Best’ in the NAP’s online contest. 

With the inclusion of retirees like Alison, Ventura County was able to increase their participation numbers as well as broadens the base of employees they reach each year.   Coordinator Margaret Travers stated that, “by including retired employees this year, we made many new artist friends who will participate in our ongoing series of exhibits which was a wonderful bonus.”