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Text by Joseph M. Schuster •
Photography by Mike Jensen
Linnea Riley’s passion for art is the result of both nature and nurture.
Her mother was artistic; her maternal grandfather helped create a nature-study
art course used by the Field Museum in Linnea’s native Chicago. “When I was a
girl, I spent hours at the table, doing those lessons.” By the time she went off
to the University of Illinois, she knew she wanted to be a painter and decided
to study art. Halfway through, she changed her major to advertising and
journalism. “I got nervous about being able to support myself as a painter,” she
admits.
After graduating, she returned to Chicago and did illustrations for
Montgomery Ward home furnishings ads before she and her husband, Michael, moved
to California, then to Holland and England. “We wanted adventure; we wanted to
see the world and live somewhere we hadn’t been before.”
Eventually, they
landed in Aspen, Colorado, running an import store for winter tourists. “But
what do you do for money when you have two daughters to provide for and it
doesn’t snow and there aren’t many tourists?” Ironically, to gain financial
stability, she went back to her first love, art, and began the annual series of
poster calendars that have become her trademark.
(a) The muffled cat (b) and the holiday-hued pencil come from two of
her whimsical Christmas cards. “The green half of the pencil says ‘nice,’ while
the red says ‘naughty.’ Notice that it’s more worn down.” (c) Linnea
manages the business from a home office, but does her creative work on “a
beautiful upper patio filled with flowers overlooking Lake Washington.”(d) An illustration from the 2007 calendar reflects Linnea’s fascination with
wind-up toys. (e) Her book, Mouse Mess, inspired a children’s activity
box. (f) An impish bear skates across a Christmas card.
true colors page
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