Artist Thrives on Her Own Style of Paper Work

From her early days, Fay A. Colmar seemed to have a flair for art.

“I was the one who always seemed to be making paper dolls, drawing comic strips and later in high school I was the one painting sets for plays,” she said. “It seemed natural to me.”

She later received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art from Cal State Fullerton and in-between having five children, enrolled in a series of other classes, all art-related.

“Every time I got pregnant, and that was a lot, I would run out and take a class in some phase of art,” she said.

Now a grandmother, Colmar, 61, rents an art studio in Buena Park and works eight hours a day in a serious attempt to become a known West Coast artist. She often returns at night to do more work.

She hopes her paper sculptures and bottle-quilting leads her there.

“Some people use clay or wood; I use recycled paper that I make into sculptures by tearing it, layering it, crumpling it and folding it,” she explained.

Her paper sculptures are often made in abstracts with floral elements that are hand-painted or sprayed. The finished products, she said, are mostly suited to corporate offices and hotels.

Some are corner sculptures.

In her latest bottle-quilting effort, 40 plastic bottles, each painted by a different person, were wired together to form a wall sculpture.

It is hanging on a wall at Sonora High School in Fullerton.

The gallon milk bottles were painted by Sonora student artists during a school “bottle bee,” similar to a quilting bee where people would bring scraps of material and sew them together.

“I’ve learned one way to become recognized is to develop something unique in art, and this is unique,” said the Fullerton woman, a member of Artists Contributing to the Solution (ACTS), a conservation group promoting recycling.

To urge recycling, Colmar once hung a string of disposable diapers outside her studio with the message, “Don’t throw anything else away that can be reused.”

Colmar, who taught art at a number of night schools as well as Cal State Fullerton and Coastline Community College, says, “We live in a throwaway society. People should recycle just about everything.”

In fact, Colmar uses recycled material for just about all of her artwork, which includes wall sculptures made from cut up plastic bottles and cardboard.

“Just about everything is useful in my work,” said Colmar, who also continues to paint on canvas, noting that “no matter what an artist does, they always return to painting. It’s like a musician playing scales.”

Despite her penchant for art, “I wanted to be more of a writer than an artist. Art was easy for me, and writing was more of a challenge,” she said.

While pursuing writing in college, her teacher suggested, “I think you are going in the wrong direction.”

The teacher must have been right.

“Art is fun. It is full of color and celebrates the joy of life,” she said.

To help pay the costs of renting her art studio, Colmar also paints and sells T-shirts, wood pieces and furniture.

“It’s a way of bringing in some money,” is her simple explanation.