Art dream comes true

By Dean Poling

August 15, 2008 11:11 pm

— VALDOSTA — Jamie Hall has long wanted to paint like her mother, Barbara Morgan. Now, she can surprise her mom. Jamie has become an artist.
With help from the Normal Life Dream Team and area artist and instructor Faye Steele, Jamie Hall painted her first canvas recently.
Her first painting: A picture of a butterfly, with good composition along with clear and contrasting colors. All painted within a few hours of Jamie Hall dabbing her paintbrush into a palette of acrylics for the first time.
Jamie Hall is a client of Normal Life, which is a North Ashley Street facility devoted to making its clients’ lives as close to the societal category of “normal” as possible. There, clients participate in Special Olympics activities, socializing, and numerous other programs. Normal Life also has what it calls a “Dream Team,” a group of staff members working to make clients’ dreams come true.
In the past, Normal Life’s Dream Team aided a client in his dream to drive a car once in his life. Other Dream Team wishes have included a client’s dream of being a law-enforcement officer for a day, helping a client who wished to be a country singer record a country tune, and helped make numerous other dreams come true.
Jamie Hall has been with Normal Life for nearly 10 years, since she was 17 years old. Susan Reiter, a Normal Life staffmember and Dream Team member, knew that Hall’s dream was to become an artist. Reiter had also taken painting classes from Faye Steele. Reiter asked Steele if she would help Hall’s dream come true, and Steele agreed.
Faye Steele of Lowndes County is a member of the Southern Artists League and teaches painting classes in locations such as Hobby Lobby, Ray City Ceramics, and private parties. She paints numerous subjects in a realistic style. Her work may be seen on the Web site www.paintwithfaye.com; and she may be contacted through paintwithfaye@yahoo.com; or by calling 559-7909.
After helping Hall throughout the day, Steele says Jamie has a natural eye and abilities for art. As for Jamie, her dream doesn’t end with her first canvas. She’s ready to paint more and plans to prepare a place to work on art at her home.

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