80-year-old finds plenty of inspiration to fuel artwork

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen, said Leonardo da Vinci.

Rita Fulop, 80, is both an artist and a poet. Her book of poems, "Have Others Ever Felt This Way?," was handed out to her patients when she was a psychiatrist -- her doctorate is in child development and psychiatry. But, these days, it's art that keeps her busy.

She sold some of her pieces at the Christmas Bazaar at Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High School on Dec. 3.

"I wasn't there so much as a seller but to expose my work," the Summerlin resident said.

Mostly, she creates it for herself and her family, much of it in watercolor, some using pen and ink, and some both. Then there are others showing her versatility by mixing vibrant textures from nature to create 3-D wall hangings.

"My work is eclectic," she said. "I don't like to do one thing because it bores me."

Fulop's interest in art began as a child when she would watch her mother, Ettu, craft jewelry. When she was 10, Fulop made meticulous pen and ink drawings. They were so good, her parents had them printed up as greeting cards.

After school, she was hired by a fashion photographer who saw her eye for artistic flair. Much of the work was catalogue shoots for JCPenney, which favored blonde models, and B. Altman & Co., which leaned toward brunettes. Another regular client, a knitting magazine, wanted wholesome, All-American types gracing their pages.

"You had to know what each one wanted," she said, adding that everything from jewelry to shoes had to fit the "type."

For 10 years, she worked in the hectic garment industry, coordinating shoots and overseeing them. When a model wore a scarf, it didn't just hang there. Fulop would find a way to make it part of the design. Her touch could be seen in fashion magazines nationwide.

Love, life and raising a family -- three daughters -- called, so she left the workplace, but she always kept one hand dabbling in art.

Daughter Karen Feldman said it's "characteristic of my mom to try new things. I always remember her saying, 'Why not?' "

"I think that art has been with her since childhood, as a way of expression," said daughter Leslie Schwartzberg. "What I see as an empty egg carton, she sees as a 'raw' piece of art."

Fulop has another daughter, Lois, who lives on the East Coast.

Fulop made education a priority and, when her daughters were older, went back to college and later opened her own psychiatric practice in New York City.

In the past 10 years, since moving to Summerlin with her late husband, Milt, she's done so many pieces, she can only estimate the tally in vague terms -- hundreds. Some of it was made by dismantling her mother's jewelry designs and retooling them into 3-D designs of framed art. Sometimes the 3-D effect is added to the glass atop the main art.

"You've got to think outside the box," she said.

One of her out-of-the-box pictures has a parrot done entirely in sequins. She'll never do another. It was entirely too time-consuming, she said.

She has created different series of pictures, but after six or seven, she stops. It's that "boring" aspect again, she explained.

Fulop said she'd like to open a studio in Village Square to show her work. She'd have other artists rent out walls to display and sell their work.

"But the economy, I don't think it'd work," she said.

So, she continues to create.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.