Susan Turner Purvis

SUSAN TURNER PURVIS, 67, passed away on July 16, 2015, in Atlanta, Ga., following a massive stroke that occurred while she was coming home from a workshop in New Mexico. She was an extraordinary artist, incredible master teacher, and dedicated wife, mother, and friend. She was born in Hope, Ark., to McDowell and Mary Nell Turner on March 27, 1948. During her childhood she endured scarlet fever, polio, and cancer. While at Hope High School, she was treasurer of the student council and voted Miss Hope High of 1966. She attended Hendrix College where she majored in art education. While there, Susan was elected to Cardinal Key, Class Beauty, GTAHAH (Homecoming) Queen, and Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities. Following her graduation in 1970, she married her childhood sweetheart, Joe Purvis. After Joe's discharge from the U.S. Air Force in 1972, they returned to Little Rock and she began teaching at Central Junior High in North Little Rock where she taught until the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth, in 1976. After a respite, she resumed teaching art as a Children's Art Instructor at the Arkansas Arts Center where she taught for over a decade. Susan became a Fellow with the JDR III Foundation's Arts in Education Program with the Little Rock School District. During this time, she was a producing artist whose works were placed in the collections of Shell Oil in Houston, Texas, ArkLa Gas Company, and the Arkansas Arts Center. In 1980 she gave birth to her son, Benjamin. She also worked under Becky Whitsell on the restoration of the lobby ceiling of the Lafayette Hotel. In 1987, Susan began a 28-year career as Art Specialist at Gibbs International Studies Magnet School in Little Rock. When she began, she had no classroom, one table, and her only supplies were a box of Mardi Gras beads. She became an excellent scrounger, getting cardboard from appliance boxes on the loading dock of Brand House Furniture, wire from the telephone company, paper from Dumpsters and area law firms. She especially liked the table paper at Bonefish Grill, sweetalking the manager into donating three rolls of the paper to her school. There was no such thing as "scrap," and she constantly collected, among other things, bottle caps, flattened metal objects, and interesting rocks and sticks. Susan was curious and creative, continuing her own learning, and her classes reflected that. They were a mixture of history, culture, art, music, and other influences. They were always fun! Her classes emphasized listening, literacy, and critical thinking skills, always thinking outside the box. Because supplies were scarce, there were no do-overs in her classroom. There is no one answer in art, and she would deal with "mistakes" by getting the students to use critical thinking skills and apply an "art band-aid." You adapted and moved on. Susan became involved in projects which blended into her art. She made a place at Gibbs for a former janitor, Eddie Lee Kendrick, a self-trained artist. He spent a year with her at Gibbs. She co-curated a show of his work with the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Arkansas Arts Center. Susan became involved in a project with the Rockefeller Foundation, UALR, and the Japanese-American Museum in Los Angeles dealing with the forced relocation of Japanese-American citizens during World War II and their experiences at the two camps in Jerome and Rowher here in Arkansas. She co-wrote curriculum for social studies and art teachers based upon the internees' experiences at the camps. Her students made a wonderful quilt reflecting the experiences using this curriculum. Through the years, Susan entered a number of her students' work in the International Children's Art Exhibition sponsored by Pentel. She had over a dozen accepted into this exclusive competition. Susan also entered her students' work in the statewide Young Arkansas Artists (YAA) exhibition through the Arkansas Arts Center for 27 years. The overwhelming majority of her students' exhibits were group projects involving an entire grade level. Her students' work won "Best In Class" in 19 of the 26 years their work was accepted, including two awards in 2015, her last year. Some of Susan's more memorable group projects included a complete replication of an Arkansas Traveler baseball game at Ray Winder Field. The exhibit included working lights and the complete sounds of the game which had been recorded by a blind student. The tape played constantly at the exhibit. Her students also did the second Inaugural Parade for President Clinton in 1997. It is currently in the permanent collection of the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. Her students created numerous other projects, including ones on the Harlem Renaissance and a dinner party honoring Judge Mifflin Gibbs, the namesake of their school. Susan was recognized and honored by her peers repeatedly, who twice named her Arkansas Elementary Art Educator of the year, and once named her Arkansas Art Educator of the Year. Having retired from Gibbs at the end of the 2015 school year, she was excited about the next phase of her life. She was looking forward to producing art in her new studio and to working with the Clinton Foundation. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Joseph H. Purvis, and her children, Elizabeth, of Washington, D.C., and Dr. Benjamin H.T. Purvis and his wife Dr. Rachel S. Purvis, of Clifty; her mother, Mary Nell Turner, of Bella Vista; her sister, Ellen Turner and husband Tom McClure, of Rogers; her sister-in-law, Ann P. Starks and husband Charlie, of Fouke; and her brother-in-law, Thomas M. Purvis Jr., of El Dorado; nephews Paul Neaville (Marisa Luzzatto) of Washington, D.C., Jason and Chris Starks of Fouke, and her niece, Dr. Emily Neaville, of Cincinnati. Susan believed and lived her work. She believed every child had a gift, and every child was an artist. Her greatness and her light continue to be reflected in her many friends and the thousands of students and people whose life she touched. The visitation will be held Tuesday, July 21, 2015 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Ruebel Funeral Home. A memorial service will be held Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 1 p.m. in Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Little Rock, Ark. with a reception to follow. A graveside service will take place on Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 11 a.m. in Old Washington Cemetery, Hope, Ark. Memorials in Susan's honor can be made to Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, Meals on Wheels, or Humane Society of Pulaski County. Arrangements are under the direction of Ruebel Funeral Home, www.ruebelfuneralhome.com. In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. - Marc Chagall