Friday May 10 2008

(Thanks to Sally.... Here is the text and photos of the article written by Helena Linn that was in the paper last week. Sally was able to copy and email it to me because she gets the paper online. Nothing happening here today to write about except we're having rain and snow. So its a good day to have something else to put in the blog. Thank you very much Sally.)

May 1, 2008 Pinedale Roundup Page 11A


Artist Lynn Thomas looks at the world
with a keen eye for detail, color, shadow and
dimension and she has a real appreciation for
the gifts of nature.

Becoming an artist started when Lynn was
old enough to hold a pencil and would ask
her mother to show her how to draw. She
was encouraged by her parents to draw and
paint. Her father bought two brushes, canvas
paper and several colors for her and she still
has some of her first drawings and paintings.
She would draw on butcher paper, paper
sacks and whatever was available. She
painted on the back of old oilcloth tablecloths.
She took art classes in high school
and then attended workshops and studied oil
painting on her own.

Lynn’s family lived in Watts, Calif., when
she was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 20,
1939. Her father, Eugene Leonard Pfeiffer,
was a CPA for a trucking company. He married
Genevie Juanita Hupp who had a daughter,
Barbara Hays, from a previous marriage.
Lynn was Eugene and Genevie Pfeiffer’s
first born. Later, her sisters Diana and Gloria
joined the family. Barbara passed away a
few years ago. Diana lives in Henderson,
Nev., and Gloria lives in Green Valley, Ariz.,
near Tucson.

Lynn started school in Los Angeles, but
by her fourth grade, they had moved to Paradise
Valley, Nev., where her father was put
in charge of the trucking terminal for the
company. It was a sparsely settled area with
a small two-room school. After Lynn spent
one year at St. Joseph Catholic School, she
and her sister attended the small rustic
school and soon a new school was built in
Paradise Valley. Lynn attended the six-room
school there. The fifth and sixth grades were
in one room and the seventh and eighth
grades were in another. It was there in seventh
grade that her teacher who had majored
in art gave her some oil painting lessons.
Mr. Pfeiffer left the trucking company,
bought a house in Henderson and began his
own accounting firm. Lynn graduated from
Basic High School there and married Mike
Hahn soon afterward. The couple had daughters
Beverly and Debbie. Their baby,
Michelle, passed away as an infant.
After seven years, the couple divorced.
Lynn worked at Sears, at first in the toy department,
but soon was moved into doing the
advertising and decorations. She enjoyed
dressing the manikins, creating newspaper
ads and arranging the display windows. She
made all the signs for the store on a vintage
printing press. Later, she went to work at Titanian
Metals as a secretary.

Life was not easy, trying to support her
two girls and herself, but she worked hard
and continued to upgrade their living conditions,
going from small apartments to a
house in Desert Hills, between Las Vegas
and Henderson. Then they lived in Boulder
City for several years. Lynn stayed at Titanian
about seven years. Their main recreation
was to go camping and exploring.
All this time, Lynn continued to draw and
paint. A friend of hers worked at the Nevada
Test Site for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
of California with Joe Thomas, a mechanical
engineer whose family owned the
Big Sandy Lodge in Wyoming. Their mutual
friend introduced Joe and Lynn. Joe wanted
Lynn to paint two large paintings of the
Wind Rivers for the lodge.

Joe and Lynn dated and she visited the
Lodge in 1968. Joe asked Lynn to run the
Lodge the next summer. He worked in Nevada
but would come to Wyoming periodically.
In 1969 she came to Big Sandy Lodge
with her two girls, a dog and a rabbit. Beverly
and Debbie helped with cooking,
cleaned cabins, helped with the horses and
did whatever needed to be done. Joe and
Lynn were married on Dec. 2, 1969, and
from then on she spent summers at the
Lodge and winters working at various jobs
in Nevada. She worked as secretary for a
psychiatrist for a time and later worked at a
ski shop. She showed her artwork in shows
and galleries and in 1976, she was accepted
into the Women Artists of the American West
organization. She served in various offices
and was part of the close-knit group of 35
members.

Lynn at Big Sandy

At first Clem was the cook at Big Sandy
Lodge and she taught Lynn a lot about cooking
on the big wood stove that had come
from a CCC camp. Clem had to leave the
second year because of her health. Lynn had
a cook for half of that year, but then she became
the cook for the eight or so people who
lived and worked there and the 30 or more
guests they had all the time. They took out
pack trips in the summer and hunters in the
fall. Lynn did this for almost 25 years. Living
in the mountains and meeting people
from all over gave Lynn a lot of good times,
even with all the adventures and escapades.
She loves horses and enjoyed working with
them on their pack trips. Horses are one of
her favorite subjects in her art.

Joe retired from the test site in 1983 and
by that time they had bought the place where
they live now from Joe’s dad. They sold the
Lodge about that time. Joe built a studio onto
their house for Lynn and she has continued
her artwork during the years. She has taken
her artwork to shows and has received many
awards. Now she mostly shows her work in
their barn – each summer she hangs pictures
for her very popular Art in the Barn season.
Lynn belongs to Mixed Media, a local art
group; Sublette County Artists’ Guild;
Women Artists of the West, the Wyoming
Artists Association and served as president
of that organization; she was chosen Grand
Wyoming Artist in 2000. She also belongs to
Equine Artists Association (artists using
horses as subjects) and The Pastel Society of
the Northern Rockies. Through the years she
built her art career and has been in prestigious
shows and galleries all over the country.
Lynn has many interests. She and Joe love
their two dogs, Sparky and Raven. They
have always had horses, but don’t have any
at present. Lynn knows birds and flowers
like few people do. She identifies birds,
pressed flowers and identified them until she
knows them well. Photography has been another
passion for this industrious lady. She
has about 70,000 slides that will be put onto
disks soon.

Writing is another special interest. Her
written prose and poetry have been published
in Sublette County Artists’ Guild
books. Lynn began to write as a young girl
and she still writes. Lynn moved right into
the world of computers and through a blog
that she established a little over a year ago,
she shares her stories and photos of her
everyday life.

Throughout our interview, it was obvious
that with all the special interests Lynn
Thomas has, her family means the most to
her. She and Joe enjoy their comfortable
home in the country and have many friends.
Beverly has a son, Shane, from a first
marriage and is married now to Brent
Roberts. They have 14-year-old, Clayton.
Shane is married to Andrea.
Justin is Debbie’s son from her first marriage.
Debbie and her husband, Curtis Cummings,
have a daughter, Tayler, who will go
to the University of Reno in August.
All of Lynn’s children and grandchildren
live in Las Vegas. Lynn goes to visit her family
whenever she can. She and her daughters
have traveled quite a lot. They enjoyed a trip
to Alaska and travel around the western
states as often as possible.

Lynn is writing her memoirs, the fascinating
account of life as an artist experiencing
many varied occupations and interests.
Last October, Lynn was diagnosed with
cancer and has had 16 chemo treatments in
the past months. She has received extraordinary
support and love from her family and
friends while those people have watched
Lynn’s extraordinary journey through her
treatments. Her courage has been amazing
and inspirational to those who know her.
Lynn Thomas still looks at the world as an
artist; she appreciates the wonders of nature
and she loves her family, friends, and life.