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Meet the Twins

"I don't like the color you are putting there." "No, you're using the wrong brush!" Bicker, bicker, as they transform an old, castoff milk can into an objet d'art, which is to be an anniversary gift from a wife to her husband. They sanded, repaired and primed it, and now the yard-high, former functional item could in fact be ready for a museum, to be shown as an exquisite piece of folk art.

Elena Fernandez, of Atlantic Highlands, giggles as she describes the needling that goes on between her and her sister, Anne Marie Reedy, of Keyport, both born with the surname Thormo. It is clear that they love each other, and their artistic talent as individuals gives testimony to their bond. Together they do paintings on canvas, canvas, furniture, walls, whatever, wherever, large and small--any surface that screams for adornment. The rolling landscapes, idyllic garden scenes, trompe l'oeil, tableaux of serene and picturesque daily doings and other images the sisters both work on are reminiscent of art that came out of yesteryear's guilds. Their style might set you thinking of a combination of Grandma Moses and Thomas Hart Benton, or the ilk of contemporary popular painters such as Thomas Kinkade. Listening to Elena's recounting the details of their work; why the hill went here, how the cottage and garden ended up there, accommodating a specific surface--embraced the pair's passion for making plain things beautiful.

The mother of four daughters, three grown and married, a grandmother of six, and Spanish and French teacher for home-schooled and public school students, Elena studied art and photography at Hunter College in New York City, from which she graduated with a major in language arts. “Art is something that my sister and I always did in high school, and our teachers promoted it,” she said. “We really enjoyed it, although it never crossed my mind to do anything businesslike. My sister was more interested in the fashion industry and textile designs. I was more into the fine arts and liked a lot of the Impressionists work-actually, that's my favorite style. I also like the paintings of modernists, including Picasso, and Pollock.” Georgia O'Keeffe comes in strong because of the boldness of her florals. Artists work from two different perspectives; first, what do we want to say and how does it make us feel, and then the person perceiving the art has his own view and emotions. An artist says it all by himself and to himself; then it can be interpreted by others.

When they looked at the milk can, they had no beginning "because we'd never painted a milk can before," Elena said, "We talked to the lady who was commissioning the art, and she said she wanted something cottagey, that represented peaceful living, and mentioned her husband likes Thomas Kinkade. That's what we did. We saw Kinkade's work and sort of paid tribute to him. We joined some of his style with our style. The woman was crazy about the finished milk can, so much so that she gave us double the price we asked. It was very exciting for us to see her response." Elena and Anne Marie know each other's forte and how to make the best use of it. Said Elena, "My sister and I do see things differently - I like the landscape parts, the bigger scenes, and Anne Marie likes to get into the tiny details with her teeny-weeny little brush. How we get our styles together is a mystery to us. We start out with our own pictures of things, but as we look at the work, something emerges that is more us than just her or just me.”

The Thormo sisters were born in Lima, Peru, to an Italian-French mother and a father from Spain. They grew up in Lima until they were about 11 years old, went to Catholic school and then came to the United States with their mother after their parents divorced. Their mother’s sister was already here studying at a university, and their father went back to Europe. “I didn't see him again: until my 19th birthday," Elena said. “He travels a great deal and is hard to pin down. Basically, we lost contact again. We haven't seen him in years. My mother is very artistic and sang opera for years. She is extremely creative in many ways. She was visiting us recently (she lives in Chicago with my step-dad and my brother) and said she was going to start to paint because she loves what we do."

Elena's husband, Frank, is also an artist who designs footwear. When asked if he has input in her work, she said wryly, "He tries." "One of our older daughters likes to paint," Elena said, "and Pamela, 17, paints beautifully. She has a talent for portraits, something I have to work at because it doesn't come as easily." Elena and Anne Marie agree that their most exciting commission so far was to paint furniture for Haas Cienda Antiques in Keyport. The store owner had an early 1900s Empire mahogany chest of drawers, highboy, vanity with two mirrors and a dresser. It had literally been abused; it had been over-painted and suffered nail holes and such injuries. "The owner brought it to us and asked us to make it look more feminine, less clunky," said. Elena. "So we cleaned it up and painted it to look soft, in the style of Fragonard--creamy, sagey greens, scrollwork, vignettes, florals, and we played with the curves of the furniture. She absolutely loved it, to the point that she had a hard time deciding whether to sell it or keep it."

Once a week, Elena teaches art to children at the New Life Presbyterian Church in Keansburg. It's a three-part course that includes exposure to famous artists and their work, the basics of drawing, painting, and working in other mediums so the children can see what they like. "Parents like to see their development," said Elena, who has recently been commissioned to teach once a month at the Lincroft Bible Church. "I have a busy life, but I love it. Next to painting and creating art, I love to help children discover they can make art. We put up all the work in a show for their families and friends. I love seeing that."

She and her sister now attend the First Assembly of God Church in Shrewsbury. "We went back to basics and the Bible," Elena said, "We began to really learn what our Christian faith was. We fell in love with it, and it's a huge part of our life. It's our fellowship, and our children grew up in it."

Anne Marie Reedy's own story blends artistically with Elena's. "I went to the Fashion lnstitute of Technology for fashion design," she said, "and found out I hated it. They told me what I really wanted was to illustrate. When you're 18 and think you want to be a fashion designer, it's quite a shock when you are given mannequins, scissors and fabric-no, thank you. I wanted to make beautiful drawings. Years after, I worked in the fashion industry doing drawings--higher-end shoes for the lower-end shopper-and I was an associate buyer and merchandiser for the House of Jewelry for awhile. "Later, when I became a mom for the last time (I have three children), my husband promised I could stay home," said Anne Marie. "I worked out of my home and am a home-school-mom, too. Any art Elena and I did was for fun, like crafty things for the Living Word Church in Atlantic Highlands. It had an ugly church basement that was used for luncheons and other gatherings. It had a built-in framed section for decorations, but my sister and a friend who painted along with us found the decoration grew beyond the section. We painted two 40-foot walls-two garden murals with deer, animals, and beach scenes. It became a beautiful room. That was the first large-scale project we did for people other than ourselves. We really had fun with that, and the pastor let us create. My daughter had her wedding there. We added white trellises with Christmas lights, and everyone enjoyed it."

Then the sisters moved on to the church in Shrewsbury and discovered new artistic needs--church plays and children's activities. They created Easter scenery--10 8x4-foot flats of Jerusalem, Gethsemane, etc., and thereafter created scenery for the Christmas play and summer activities and performances. All their work is volunteered for the churches. "We rarely charged them for anything," said Anne Marie, "very rarely for supplies. But that's when people started asking us about private commissions and we started out charging minimally for our basic expenses and some of our time. As things progressed, we found we liked doing more complicated and more detailed projects. We're perfectionists. We'll do things over and over if necessary until we're happy with it. Then we hate to give it up. Our projects vary; one was a child's stool with an "angel-bears in heaven" scene painted on it. I like painting little scenes where I would like to be myself. "Another commission came from parents expecting a boy," she said. "The father wanted a sports theme, and the mother wanted nursery-rhyme creatures and pretty things. So given that dilemma for the baby furniture, I started drawing animals with little helmets and uniforms playing games, including a mouse in Jets uniform-whimsical things.

“My sister – you can just give her a brush and a blank wall and she’ll start a sky and fields.” Anne Marie continued. “But I’ll then see a deer, the stone, and the details. We paint over each other’s things at times. What? A palm tree? I’ll paint a cottage over it. We walk around each other with the art. I’m the final person. I do the finishing touches. We haven’t gotten into a real fight over anything since we were twelve, when she drew a chalk line down the middle of our bedroom, but the door was on her side! We’ll disagree now in a humorous way.

“I know there are certain things my sister is really good at,” Anne Marie added. “She can get a piece started, and she has a better sense of word than I do. She writes stories and expresses herself better in words. I can get very sarcastic. I can’t explain to you a movie I just saw, but I can correct her when she’s telling it. That’s how we learned to work together. I guess I’m sort of an editor, and she’ll allow me to edit to make something more succinct. We’ll bicker till the work is done to both our satisfaction. We will take correction from each other whether we like it at the moment or not. Anne Marie has one grandson, Bobby, who is “too cute for words,” she said, and lives in North Carolina. Her husband, Michael, is a material scientist in the plastic industry and has owned his own company since 1988.

With or without the singing, the sisters’ work--most happily--is never done.

By Tova Navarra

Two River Times

November 26, 1999