Nationally-recognized visual artist from Oklahoma, CONNIE SEABOURN (b.1951) is best known for her soul-touching, spiritually-charged, translucent watercolor paintings. Widely exhibited and eagerly collected for both public and private collections, her artworks -although featuring a variety of subjects- share her unique style. Her distinct artist’s voice, (choice of colors, use of varied textures, distinctive use of space, and especially her adept use of layered washes to emphasize the ethereal), makes her paintings immediately recognizable, no matter what subject she paints. 

BEGINNINGS, EDUCATION and TEACHING

Although she was winning awards as a child, Connie Seabourn began exhibiting and selling artworks as an adult in 1969 through galleries and museum competitions. Commercial art also became a part of her early experiences as she continued to work on painting and printmaking. During the following years of making, exhibiting and selling art, she earned a BFA with a printmaking emphasis, (minor painting) from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, and an MEd in art education from the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK, as well. Always persevering in her desire to make, exhibit and sell art full-time, she also taught part-time as an adjunct instructor at Rose State College, Midwest City, OK, and the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK. She later taught full-time, K-12, for nine years in Oklahoma City Public Schools while painting in her own studio evenings and weekends. For many years again, she works full-time at her fine art, as she continues to teach art part time.

EXHIBITS

Widely recognized and collected, Connie has been represented in many group exhibits at prominent venues, including the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; the National Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center, Oklahoma City, OK; and the Museum of Man, San Francisco, CA. 

She has also had numerous solo exhibits at prestigious galleries and museums, including the University of Iowa, Ames, Iowa; the Mabee-Gerrer Museum, Shawnee, OK; the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha, OK; the Hulsey Gallery, Norick Art Center, at  Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK; the Governor’s Art Gallery, Oklahoma State Capitol, Oklahoma City, OK; the White Horse Gallery (annually for several years, one of which was a “sell out” of all her 40 paintings, as well as several additional pieces from a back store room), Boulder, CO; Adagio Gallery, Palm Springs, CA; Joan Cawley Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Carol Thornton Gallery, Santa Fe, OK; and Karin Newby Gallery, Tubac, AZ, as well as galleries in Sacramento, CA, Beaverton, OR and Jupiter, FL.

Small, 2-3 person “group” shows include those at Somerset Gallery, Somers, NY; the SmART art gallery at the Omniplex Science Museum, Oklahoma City, OK; the Depot, Norman, OK;  Sandalwood & Sage, Norman, OK; several of the galleries where she also had solo exhibits, and many other galleries, literally from coast-to-coast.

She has supported local arts events in her home town, exhibiting at the Paseo Arts Fest three times, the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts four times, and the first 20 years  (without “skipping” one) of the Red Earth cultural event, all in Oklahoma City, OK.  She felt especially honored when she was asked to be a judge of the painting and graphics divisions for Red Earth 2022.

COLLECTIONS

Public collections of which her paintings and other original artworks are a part, include the Heard Museum, Scottsdale, AZ; the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK; the Eugene B. Adkins Collection at the Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; the Oklahoma Judicial Center, Oklahoma City, OK; and the Arthur and Shifra Silberman Collection at the Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK. Connie Seabourn’s hand-painted Easter egg depicting butterfly women is a part of the collection at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC. Her work is also in the collections of His Excellency Nobuo, Ambassador of Japan; Talley Industries, Phoenix, AZ;  and Tyson Food Corporation, Fayetteville, AR.

PUBLICATIONS

Among the many magazine and book covers graced with the art of Connie Seabourn, are Peaceful Warrior Nurse, by Pricilla Smith Trudeau, (Wealth in Diversity Publishing, Cambridge, VT); Faces of the Moon, by Betty Louise Bell, (University of Oklahoma Press, -as well as the book catalogue cover for that publisher, Norman, OK); Rainbow Spirit Journeys, by Wolf Moondance, (cover, as well as approximately 30 full page color illustrations, Sterling Publishing, New York, NY); Divine Passages: Confessions of a Menopausal Woman, by Judith VandenNieuwenhof Owens, (W.E.L.L. Publications, Oklahoma City, OK);  and Body, Mind and Spirit magazine (Providence, RI).

Several children’s books, of which she is both writer and illustrator, have been under consideration by a regional publisher; she has been completing  “last touches” of artwork for a children’s book by Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice, Yvonne Kauger. She has also completed illustrations for the beautiful and touching lyrics to The LookOut Tree by Louise Goldberg, recorded and performed by Louise Goldberg and Mary Catherine Reynolds, both of Miss Brown to You, and is looking for a publisher! (Interested?  Google and listen to the song! Contact any of us through FaceBook!) 

BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLICATIONS

Connie Seabourn is/has been included in several biographical listings, including several times in Who’s Who in American Art. She is a part of, along with Dana Tiger and Cindy Hoke Blackburn, Our Fathers’ Daughters, by Kathy Buttry (Silver Wolf Publishing, Oklahoma City, OK), which is a part of the Mankiller Collection at the Oklahoma State University Library, Stillwater, OK. Her biography and artwork are also in Art of the Judicial Center, edited by Gayleen Rabbakukk, c. 2014, Oklahoma Supreme Court, Oklahoma City, OK.

Self-publishings include a 1993, hard-back, 208-page autobiography with full color art images, Walk in Beauty: Connie Seabourn; a coloring book, Imaginings; and a co-authored and self-published, soft bound book, Connie Seabourn: The Artist as Printmaker. As a “give-away” and to celebrate her 40th birthday, she created an edition of signed & numbered in an edition of 40, blind-embossures with water-colored hand details, called 40 and Georgia on My Mind. To celebrate her 60th (into her 64th) birthday, she wrote, edited, illustrated with original artworks, hand-bound and gave away, an edition of sixty stab-bound books, titled 60 (four+). She has now almost completed the “edition” of 70, as yet untitled, original, watercolored, concertina-fold artists books as a give-away (upon completion) to celebrate her 70th birthday which was in September of 2021.

 PERSONAL LIFE 

Connie Seabourn grew up surrounded by nature, books, and art. Extremely shy and introverted -when she wasn’t in a tree, catching bugs and frogs or otherwise exploring/enjoying wildlife, reading or daydreaming- she was making art. Raised in a semi-developed area at the edge of Oklahoma City, Connie was the first child of young and passionate parents–her father was a painter, and her mother loved the arts, especially music and singing. Connie planned to be a beatnik painter/writer when she grew up, sometimes also wanting to be a scientist (drawing, analyzing, inventing and documenting) or a spy (whose “cover” and excuse to be a world traveler was that she was an artist).

Watching her artist/father work from his home studio, she also attended galleries and museums with her family most weekends. They took trips to other states on long weekends and summer school breaks, typically to see more art or for her father to show his. Connie was frequently allowed to leave small pieces of her own art to be exhibited and sold beside her father’s art at these venues. Art in some form –commercial art, art education, painting sales (by herself as an adult, and/or by her father when she was a child)– has supported her not just the last 50+ years, but her entire life.

Life was not always so idyllic however. Connie, like many of us, had and has her own “personal demons”. She has written that she’s grateful for all of these experiences because of the greater compassion and understanding she acquired because of them. Besides experiencing the cliche’ of having opportunities for emotional, social and spiritual growth, she discovered that art is always a healer.

Connie’s highly personal works reflect her interests in the arts, as they also reflect what is going on in her personal life. One large influence was the birth of her only child in 1974, which swayed her art towards a lengthy period of including mothers and babies. Other life experiences and interests especially affect her art and are manifest in her thoughts, passionate feelings and explorations into love, myths, religions, spirituality, nature/animals, dreams, flying, and native peoples. Her adept handling of transparent watercolor enchants the viewer and welcomes us into her mystical, dreamy and sometimes child-like world. Very disciplined, she paints in her home studio most days.

Collecting art, books, religious artifacts, and UFO paraphernalia, Connie also delights in reading, writing, accumulating her own natural history museum, and going to art exhibits. She enjoys spending time with family,  daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth Seabourn West and Cory West, granddaughter, Maya Seabourn Dean, and parents, Bert and Bonnie Seabourn. She continues to make her home in Oklahoma City with Kathy Buttry, their cat and 2 dogs.

Afterthoughts–  when I texted my daughter, Elizabeth, telling her that I didn’t want to embarrass her or myself, and asking her if the biography was “all right”, maybe “TMI”, or had other problems, this is what she wrote:

“I think it is honest, inspiring, and is a true biography. Skeletons give your point of view as much as your celebrations do. Your 70+ years of life is told when you look at your body of work. We love the art of Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe…and we love them even more when we know their stories.”