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02/03/2015 11:00 PMKathleen Bidney-Singewald first became part of the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) in 1990 when her drawing was accepted into one of SAA's annual art shows. Five years, and many pieces of art (mostly photographs), later, she was invited to join the board of directors. Fast forward 20 more years, and Kathleen is preparing to be the queen of SAA's third annual 1920s-style Mardi Gras gala fundraiser at Saybrook Point Inn on Saturday, Feb. 7.
"I'm so honored to be asked," Kathleen says, beaming. "I think I get to pass out beads. I'd really like to throw them," she jokes, "but they said you can't throw anything."
We don't really want to skip over the past 20 years, though, because we'd miss hearing about the time Kathleen photographed 93 residents of a tiny French village. But first, some background.
Kathleen graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a degree in art education.
"I'd wanted to become an art teacher all my life," she states emphatically, and she spent
33 years at West Haven High School being just that, until she retired in 2002.
She's now an adjunct professor at Southern supervising art teachers out in the field.
Kathleen met her husband, Dean Singewald, Sr., a lawyer, through SAA about 16 years ago.
"We were the first couple to meet through Shoreline Arts Alliance and get married," she says.
One evening, she went to Dean's house for pizza, Kathleen recalls. The lifelong artist found her future husband's efficient and minimalist tastes far from aesthetically pleasing.
"I walked into his house and said, 'Boy, is your house stark.' There was nothing on the counters or anything like that. It was just like, 'Whoa! Where is everything?'" Kathleen says.
Then it was her turn to host dinner.
"I asked him to bring the salad and the wine," Kathleen says. "I proceeded to tell him what wine to bring and spell it for him, not knowing his father had owned a wine store. And he showed up with a salad that was absolutely precise and mechanically done. He takes two steps up into my living room and goes, 'Boy, is your place cluttered.'"
Now they share a house, "and he might consider it cluttered," Kathleen says with a chuckle. "The artist won out."
By marriage, Kathleen gained Dean's four children, Dean, Jr., Alene, Chris, and Josh, who are all lawyers like their father, and seven grandchildren ranging in age from elementary school to college.
Decades before they met, both Dean and Kathleen walked similar paths, literally.
"I was involved in peace marches down to Washington in the 1960s; he was involved in peace marches with his kids. He went to Resurrection City with his children. So we were both on similar paths not knowing it."
Dean still practices law full-time, so they don't get to travel as much as Kathleen, a self-described Francophile, would like, but her love for art provides plenty of escape.
"Art is one thing that everybody should have," she says. "It's creative, and people need that creativity-delving into things and finding out how to do something. You need to express yourself whether it's through writing, visual arts, photography, anything. Food-I've gotten into more cooking now and I think that's where I'm expressing myself more now."
Kathleen says her favorite medium is photography, but she raves about a watercolor class she took a couple of years ago.
"I loved it. It's so difficult, and I wanted to take classes and I loved doing it," she says.
Her favorite photography subject?
"France," Kathleen replies instantly. "I've had a couple photography shows and I did a book with my friends who live in Paris [François and Claire, whom she met when Claire invited her to Paris for an art exchange]. They have a house in Lentillac-du-Causse, two hours above Toulouse, and for the millennium François wanted to do a book on the village of 95 people, so he asked if I'd do the photography for it. So I did. For 3 ½ weeks that summer I photographed the 95-well,
93 people; two wouldn't let their picture be taken-and we laid out the whole book."
The book, Jour d'étéà Lentillac (A Summer Day in Lentillac), was self-published by François in August 1999.
"He wanted everybody to have something they really liked in their picture," Kathleen explains. "One person on the town council had just gotten a 4x4 Jeep, so they took a picture with that, somebody else had all of their taxidermy heads and animals, other people their bread ovens.
"It was really fun doing the book. I remember getting a phone call with François saying, 'Okay, we've got to go; so-and-so's in her field with the sheep!' So we'd go flying down on his motorcycle to the place, and he's chasing the sheep along with the woman trying to get them together so I can get a picture of them," she remembers fondly. "One of my favorite pictures is an old man with his cow, and he has his hand out to touch the cow's nose."
Today, the center of Kathleen's art world is right here on the southern Connecticut shoreline. SAA's high school Future Choices juried art show (in which Valley Regional High School talent has traditionally been well represented) is coming up. Kathleen has been chair of the show for "umpteen years," she says. IMAGES, an annual juried photography competition in its 34th year that is open to all Connecticut residents, will follow.
"I really love Future Choices, because it's high school, but some of the work is absolutely incredible," Kathleen says.
Tickets for SAA's Mardi Gras gala fundraiser at Saybrook Point Inn on Saturday, Feb. 7 are $125 per person ($80 of that is tax-deductible). Attending in 1920s Mardi Gras attire is encouraged, but otherwise the event is black-tie optional. From 6 to 7:30 p.m., there will be an open bar and Louisiana hors d'oeuvres, a silent auction, and a Mardi Gras parade. From 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., attendees can enjoy Louisiana-inspired cuisine, dance the Charleston courtesy of the Galvanized Jazz Band, and participate in the SAA scholarship auction.
"Without [Program and Marketing Director] Donita Aruny in her position, I don't know what we'd do," Kathleen says. "And [Executive Director] Eric Dillner has been wonderful, and the board is just wonderful. After I went off the board, my husband went on, so we've both been on the board, and it's really a great organization. I hope everybody comes to the Mardi Gras. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to wear!"
For more information about SAA and its upcoming events, visit www.shorelinearts.org. To learn more about Jour d'étéà Lentillac, visit www.quercy.net/librairie/lentillac_book.html.
To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Rita Christopher at r.christopher@shorepublishing.com.
For more information on the Mardi Gras fundraiser, call
203-453-3890 or email donita@shorelinearts.org.