Stubbornness and determination were the two characteristics Maria Winkler, art professor at Sacramento State, used to break through barriers in the art profession.

Winkler started her career as a feminist pioneer in the art world in 1975 and is now retiring after 33 years of teaching at Sac State.

During her time on campus, Winkler co-founded the computer arts program, taught art education to college students and used her artwork as a means of social service in the community.

Winkler said she began painting at 3 years old, but said a long career in art was never in her game plan.

She said there were many career choices she could have pursued, but despite them all, she chose art because she knew she was good at it.

“It’s the way I communicate. I’m basically a shy person. I tried other things like ballet and piano but I just didn’t have any talent in those areas. I seemed to show some ability in art. So I pursued what I got encouragement for and I felt I did well,” Winkler said.

Her talent as an artist thrived as time went on, she said, but it was definitely not something with which she was born.

“My personal belief is that 99 percent of it (becoming an artist) is perseverance,” she said. “I don’t think people are born innately with something because all that has to be learned.”

Although Winkler had a successful 33-year career at Sac State, she said she faced barriers earlier on in her career being a woman in the art field.

“My first real job was at Pennsylvania State University,” she said. “This was only made possible when affirmative action was established; it forced employers to hire women.”

Winkler said even then, when the art department was male-dominated, she managed to persevere because of her strong will.

In 1977, Winkler said, a position in the art department became available at Sac State – so she applied and was hired to fill the opening in the department.

Winkler said her most notable achievement at Sac State was contributing her time and effort to help establish the computer arts classes in the 1980s.

“I started the computer graphics classes at Sac State around 1987. That was the start of a huge technology explosion. I didn’t realize how big it was going to get when I started the classes,” Winkler said. “I was thrilled to see how the interests develop so quickly among the students all over campus.”

She said the computer arts class was not on her list of plans; she merely got involved in the computer arts when a faculty member informed her about the opportunity.

“(The computer arts classes) came about indirectly because I was looking for some more opportunities to retrain in another area and the opportunity came up from a professor in engineering who came to the art department looking for someone interested in developing a computer arts class – and I volunteered – even though it was a great deal of work because I had to learn programming through Fortran because there was no software. It was very rewarding at the end when we were able to do art and a simple animation. It was a very exciting for me,” she said.

Winkler said one of the contributing factors that helped start the computer arts class was with her experience working as an illustrator for Aerojet.

She said she took the knowledge she gained at Aerojet and used it to her benefit in starting the class.

“I was hired (at Aerojet) in their illustration department when I was going to college,” Winkler said. “I found some illustration book design and illustrations I did for people that were published.

Plus, as an artist, a painter and drawer, I was interested in not only fine arts but also the graphic application of art.

So, I had some background that led me to being ready in computers. I was not a graphic designer, but I felt that I should be open and flexible and do more than just fine art.”

Connie Spickelmier, fine arts teacher at San Juan High School and longtime colleague of Winkler, said she took one of Winkler’s classes in the “80s and found her to be very in tune to computers.

“She was kind of a trailblazer in the early years of computers,” Spickelmier said. “She taught a class for simple “DOS’ programming. It was new at the time.”

Once the computer arts classes were thriving, Winkler said, another faculty member was hired to teach the course so she could go back to teaching art education.

“My job is to take a student afraid of art, change their attitude and teach them how to teach this attitude to other students,” Winkler said.

Winkler’s husband, David Komar, artist and special education teacher, said his wife takes a basic approach when she teaches college students techniques to implement in elementary schools.

“(The art curriculum) the students are taught is all hands-on. She uses the experiences she has seen from children creating art and teaches them (Sac State students) how art is carried out from a child’s point of view,” Komar said.

Traci Martinez, junior liberal studies major, said Winkler has made creating and teaching art more fun than she expected.

“(Winkler) makes it easier art. She makes it so you don’t have to be a good artist,” Martinez said.

Because of her teachings, Winkler said, many students who have taken her class have become art teachers at public schools in the area.

Winkler has been important to children in elementary schools, Spickelmier said, because she has been guiding the next generation of teachers with the knowledge of art and art education – this makes her an amazing artist.

One of the community services Winkler has been involved with during the past 33 years is sharing her water paintings with local hospitals.

She said she enjoys sharing her water paintings at area hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente, UC Davis Medical Center and Sutter General Hospital in the region with patients under intensive care and pediatrics.

Winkler said her calming art work is therapeutic to many patients and helps to take their mind off of worries.

“I like to direct the emphasis of my efforts on public work to uplift them with art that is meditative and relaxing,” she said.

Komar said he enjoys seeing the art his wife does because her work is somewhat realistic and impressionistic.

As an artist, Winkler considers her specialties under two types of art work: artist books and paintings.

“My artist books are unique forms of art. They combine sculpture, literature and art. Each book portrays a different theme through visual representation. I got into it recently, and ironically enough, this is the first time I’m exhibiting them in Sacramento (during the Festival of Arts this month). I’ve been exhibiting them nationally for the last six years,” she said.

Winkler said her artist books have been put together over a long period of time and there were many factors that contributed to her artist books.

“I’ve been doing it for six years. I also have been taking book binding classes along all that time,” Winkler said. “And also outside of my interests in my collection of my pop-up books. I have a huge collection, over 1,000 books that date back to the 1800s. I repair them as well. So I got into the paper engineering when I started collecting my pop-up books, really.”

Winkler said it is great that people embrace their talents by creating art, but it’s hard to make a career as an artist.

“Making a living as an artist is a long shot, like making a living as an actor, especially in this economy,” she said. “I think you have to find a way of supporting yourself while you pursue art.”

She said she has had an incredible experience working at Sac State.”This campus has been the best of all the universities I’ve been at, that is why I’ve stayed here for so long,” Winkler said.

As far as her retirement, she is looking forward to it since there will be more time for her to be creative and productive with her artwork.

“In my retirement, I’m looking forward to have uninterrupted time in my studio,” Winkler said.

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