After a serious, life-threatening heart attack several years ago, Henry Dolphin's granddaughter urged her grandfather to take up painting. The painting classes gave Dolphin, who had a career in farm development in Guyana, South America, a creative outlet.
Dolphin is one of 12 senior artists whose artwork is currently at display at the Vienna Post Office.
The artwork, which will be shown until the end of July, came to the Vienna Post Office because of letter carrier Marvin Long. Long, who has delivered mail to Tysons Towers for 26 years, heard about the arts and crafts classes, and asked what they would do with all the seniors' pictures and projects. The seniors enthusiastically allowed Long to get some of their artwork to display in the post office lobby.
"I'm impressed, to be 80-some years old and do that kind of work, that's unbelievable," Long said.
The artists all reside at Tysons Towers in Vienna and average 75 years. They've come from around the world, from lives in Taiwan, China, Guyana, Iowa and Georgia. One woman worked as a housekeeper for Sen. Charles Percy for ten years, while another was a history and Chinese teacher.
They meet once a week in the all-purpose room on Thursdays to help each other paint and draw. Some seniors have been creating art all their lives, while others like Dolphin have ventured into the visual arts more recently.
"I find it very rewarding in the sense that it helps you improve your work," said Dolphin, who describes himself as "eighty-plus."
The group started meeting in May, after activities director Liz Mirc arranged a fundamentals class in drawing and painting. The class soon turned into the senior artists helping each other out. Dolphin, for instance, said that he's learned more about light and shadow through one of the other senior artists, a former professor and lifelong artist from China.
"They've turned out some really lovely work," Mirc said.
Although some of the artists have yet to see their work at the post office, Dolphin has seen his drawings of flowers there already. He helped put the artwork on the wall.
"I was surprised by how nice things looked," Dolphin said. "...It really made me feel a lot better."