*Docent
Prismatic People
by Edward Marecak
Docent
Day 16 — February 25
I didn’t know what a docent was when Elizabeth said she wanted to be one.
When we moved to Denver from Ohio in 1998, Elizabeth came to a fork in the road. One path involved furthering her career as an attorney. The other involved being a mom and becoming a docent—or tour guide—at the Denver Art Museum. She chose the latter.
Elizabeth herself would have said the docent thing was a surprise. Back in college she had been a political science major, and she considered art and art history to be “fluff” majors. But as a testament to the capacity for all of us to grow and change, she was somehow attracted to learning more about art, and a new docent class was starting up for a year of training in the fall of 1999.
Because she loved history, Elizabeth enjoyed adding art styles to her mental historical timeline. She also loved to learn about the life stories of the artists. She felt a special connection to Edward Marecak because of a parallel connection to northeast Ohio and Denver.
Marecak grew up in a farming community outside Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio, and he later received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which confirmed his interest in teaching. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver—a mile from our Denver home. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at middle and high schools in Denver: Skinner, Gove, George Washington, East, and Morey.
Elizabeth truly loved his art, and she learned that some pieces of his work were available that might just be a perfect to mark yet another marriage anniversary. Marecak is known for his dramatic use of color, and we together were fascinated by a work he titled Prismatic People, with its shimmering colors reminiscent of stained glass.
For more than a decade, Elizabeth shared her passion for art as a Denver Art Museum docent, especially enjoying leading school tours. She loved being a docent who was an enthusiastic educator, expert, and entertainer.
I recently came across a tour evaluation form dated February 2, 2001, completed by a docent colleague who wrote, “The questions you asked were great. You had great eye contact and an attentive, listening posture. You are friendly, welcoming, and enthusiastic, and you warm up your audience immediately—way to go!”
Day 16: the art of love and loss
view all posts at kentmueller.com
February 10, 2020, was the day my wife, Elizabeth Izant, entered the hospital. She and I were on a hopeful journey following her heart transplant five months prior. On March 1, she entered hospice and died March 11. This series is not about her medical journey. This is about sharing stories and reflections about our life together. In our 29 years of marriage, we collected a piece of art or two each year, often in celebration of our marriage anniversary. Each day from February 10 to March 11, I will be sharing an image of that art. And a story.