At Age 84, Selling Her Paintings for the First Time

At age 84, Violet Manca has just heard for the first time those words every artist loves to hear:  “I’ll buy that!”  And in this case, “that” was not just one painting, but a set of four.

The acrylic paintings, each depicting the same landscape as it appeared in one of the four seasons, were at the recent show in Warner Library showcasing the work of the . 

The paintings are based on prints Manca found in an art book, but she has given them her own spin.  The man who saw her work at the library and bought it sent her a note saying, “I love the pictures and I will hang them in a prominent spot.  Next stop for you, the Met!”

Not only that, but her neighbor and friend Robert Seminara said that he also intends to buy one of her works, probably one of flowers inside a window.  “Her work is beautiful,” he said.

Manca  took one art class in 1961 at Mercy College, almost by accident, she said, because the nursing school she attended surprisingly required one credit in art.  She had taken some art classes in high school, and was experimenting with abstraction. Then came marriage and a family. 

“I didn't have that much time, with four kids and a husband, and they all came home for lunch every day, so I was always shopping and cooking,” she said, appearing to enjoy the memory.  “Then I had to drop everything when my husband had a stroke and was very ill for eight years.”

And now she is doing it on a regular basis. 

“It's great that they have the art class for people like me,” she said.  “It helps your morale.  We get together and we work and talk...We look forward to the show at the library every year.” 

Manca may be typical of those served by s programs:  retired people who worked hard and contributed to the community for many years.  After caring for her family in the daytime, she worked nights as a nurse.  Her husband owned Post Automotive, at the bottom of Tarrytown’s Main Street.  With grants so scarce, there was a time when it looked like Neighborhood House might have to cut its programs, until philanthropist Kathryn Davis made a

Manca’s son Joseph is an art historian at Rice University.  One daughter, Jill, is a freelance graphic designer and the other, Susan, is a judge in New York City.  Her fourth child, Ronald, died in Vietnam at the age of twenty-three. 

“He was drafted, and he said to me ‘Mom, I’ll get it over with,’” but he never returned, tragically killed after only eighty-eight days in the service.  

Manca, who has lived in Tarrytown since 1946, retired in 1995.  She is the grandmother of five, and proudly displays a framed origami work by granddaughter Madeleine on her mantel. 

has been part of her weekly routine for a little over two years. 

“I enjoy painting,” she said.  While at class, “you don't worry about your bills, you don't worry that your insurance is due.  We encourage each other…we keep each other going."