Winzing Celebrates Studio 44’s One Year Anniversary

Last year, Peekskill artist Maureen Winzig found herself staring at a bold portrait of a woman’s face surrounded by a head of fire.

“It was my inner self, declaring ‘create or die’ a death of never trying,” Winzig said.

She had painted the “Woman on Fire,” while on an impromptu “retreat” away from her family, taken to clear her head, eight years ago. After that image reappeared to her last year, and she learned of a vacant artist loft, Winzig abandoned an endless “black hole” of resume sending and dedicated herself a full time art career. She took a risk by investing in a Peekskill studio at 44 N. Division Street and giving up on the idea of finding an office job with a steady paycheck. The "Woman on Fire" is now the logo and “boss” of her business and life. 

“I wondered what was I waiting for,” she said, of her dedicating herself to her art, something she had always wanted to do.

One year later and Winzig has taken off as an abstract and landscape artist. She also creates fun crafts like decorated light bulbs and jewelry. She has started teaching painting, throws poet open mic parties, is selling her paintings, getting commissions and is now volunteering on the boards of several large artist organizations in the area. On Saturday, April 21 Winzig is at her and is inviting friends, family and the public to attend. It is a thank you party.

“As far as I’m concerned things like this don’t happen a lot. It takes support and love from everyone and it is so overwhelming,” she said of friends, family and a supportive arts community.

Winzig often has her friends make a wish for her in a “jar of wishes,” a glass jar filled with plastic blue and silver stars that she keeps in her studio. When she starts to wonder, “what am I doing?” she picks up a handful of stars to remind herself she has everyone with her.

Winzig was born in Hartford, Ct., raised in Pleasant Valley and has lived in Lake Peekskill for 30 years, where she once had an art studio and also rents an apartment. She worked as an Executive Office Coordinator at Fuji Films headquarters for 12 years until the company downsized and she was laid off. During three years of sending resumes with little luck (“I’d go on interviews just to be bumped off for someone younger who will take less money,” she said)-Winzig kept with her art and started getting more jobs and higher paying mural work. She eventually realized it was time to take a risk and dedicate her life to her art, full time.

“I knew I needed to be in the middle of something cool and with Peekskill changing the way it is, (this was right for me),” Winzig said of her studio in the heart of downtown Peekskill.

A mannequin named Lucille placed in Winzig’s windowfront oversees Studio 44 and keeps an eye on N. Division Street as well. Winzig's paintings of the Hudson River line the walls and easels in her studio.

“I am absolutely fascinated with the Hudson River,” she said. Winzig is currently working on a 20-piece body of work on water in all its forms, that features the Hudson River. Her next series will be “Women who should be famous,” or something along those lines, she said. Winzig wants to highlight the successful and accomplished women throughout history on which the general public is largely uneducated. 

In addition to the artwork and success with commissions and mural work, Winzig is particularly proud of her poet open mic nights when she turns Lucille around and transforms the window display platform into a stage. She packs her studio with creative spoken word poets, artists and musicians.

“It’s a happening,” she said.

While Winzig continues to see success as a full time artist in Peekskill, she is also is volunteering much of her time to local artist organizations. In the last year, Winzig has become the Secretary of the Ossining Arts Council, the Steering Committee Chair Person forCommittee and a Peekskill representative for

Join Winzig’s happening on April 21 at her one-year anniversary/thank you party, which will feature her and her student’s artwork. There will be wine, drinks and snacks. Studio 44 is located at 44 N. Division Street, Peekskill. The party is Saturday, April 21 at 12 p.m.

Read more on Studio 44 . 

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