Sun City Center woman jack of many trades, master of art
By LOIS KINDLE
Beverley Paulsen’s specialty in life is reinventing herself. The 63-year-old can’t help herself. It’s like a part of her DNA.
Originally from Falls Church, Va., she started out as a volunteer makeup artist for theatre and then eloped to Oregon. She worked there as an accountant, studied computers and became a programmer.
Eventually bored with those roles, she returned to the Washington, District of Columbia-area in the early 1980s and decided she wanted a job combining sales, computer and phone work and learning the catalog business.
“One day I opened the Washington Post and saw an ad for Fahrney’s Pens, which fit all three criteria,” she said. “It was perfect. I trained one block from the White House.”
During her five years with that business, Paulsen began taking art classes out of a growing interest in graphic layout and photography for catalogs. It was a huge step for her.
“Throughout my life, I was always afraid of producing art because of my perfectionism,” she said. “My brother was a natural artist. I threw away everything I created.
“I always felt frustrated,” she added. “I knew I had a natural artist inside of me, but I never felt worthy.”
After leaving the catalog company, Paulsen’s muse led her to the Savannah College of Art and Design, taking foundation courses for two years and volunteering for the Georgia Area Radio Reading Service. It was there she fell in love with radio.
Paulsen became employed by an NPR (National Public Radio) affiliate in Savannah and ended up earning a bachelor of science degree in communication and journalism with a minor in art. Her internship was with Marketplace, a popular NPR show.
“I was like Mary Tyler Moore gathering quotes and ambient background sounds,” Paulsen said.
Paulsen also was employed by Radio Free Asia as a producer working with native speakers in repressed countries. While in that position, she learned she had breast cancer and was required to have a double mastectomy.
It changed her life.
At age 47, she found peace was more important than striving for a career.
Paulsen began painting with an artist named Julie Baxendell and moved to Rehobath Beach, Del. Seven years later, she returned to Washington, D.C. to nurse her parents in their final years.
“They died 30 days apart from one another,” she said.
A month after their passing, she moved to Sun City Center to visit a friend and got involved with Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary.
“I knew I’d found home,” she said.
During the seven years since, she rescued three cats, helped found All Paths to God New Thought Church and studied art online with Jeanne Bessette, an artist Paulsen said taught her to stop using her brain, release fear and open her heart to paint.
“Art gave me the courage to identify what’s important to me,” Paulsen said. “I learned to combine spirit and form.”
A member of the Sun City Center Art Club for the past four years, Paulsen paints in oil, acrylics and watercolor. Her first love is pen and ink.
Still, her need to expand and grow continues.
“Next I’m going to study pastels and clay sculpturing,” she said. “I also want to teach a course called ‘Everyone is an Artist.’”
For more information about Paulsen or her work, email beabeapaulsen@hotmail.com.