Profile

Portfolio

Slideshow

Bio

Contact

Website

Artist Bio

Self Portrait

Now a bit about my life til now~ Ave Hurley was born in Brooklyn NY, on March 25,1954 as the 3rd child 14 brothers and sisters.Articles relating to me can be found online.

I had a promising start in art demonstrating her skills at an early age before starting school at St.Patrick’s Roman Catholic School in Brooklyn.

While in first grade the school’s art teacher, Thaya Von Eros, took me under wing and began giving private art lessons, after school to test and advance my natural skills in art.Lessons continued till my family moved to Staten Island in 1964.

Attending PS3 in Pleasant Plains, I received art awards and excelled on any art related project given to do at the school.

From 1966-68, Elias Bernstein Jr High School, http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/31/R007/default.htm I was in the top of her class and artistic participant on the school yearbook and began entering Art Shows. While I received the prestigious "Freshman Art Award" given to her in a formal ceremony at the Grace Rainey Rodgers auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I began selling my artworks to teachers and local members of the community.I was further aided in developing her art studies by Mrs.Theresa DiGuiseppe ,of NewDorp, her high school art teacher , who referred me to after school lessons on weekends at Susan Wagner High School.

In 1969 I was one of the youngest entrant/participants at the Sailor’s Snug Harbor Arts Festival http://www.statenislandarts.org/cultural/cultural.html where she sold out all her paintings in a record few hours of the first day of the show.From this point on I began taking ’commissioned’ jobs from teachers and friends.

In 1970 I began signpainting and repainted the signs for the South Shore Little League http://www.tottenvillehistory.com/photo-album/photo34.html followed by commissions to paint signs for several stores in her hometown of Pleasant Plains and in Tottenville.

While working for Bregman and Co., a Wall St broker, in 1971 I did some paintings for Martin Bregman and began taking commissions from lawyers, doctors and politicians. Still I considered it all a side line and was not my main focus becoming more of a hobby.

In 1982 I attended the Staten Island Community College and began taking more art classes til a difficult pregnancy forced me to resign from school.

While living on a farm in Hornby NY, I began doing pen & ink illustrations for the Corning Chamber of Commerce http://www.discoverourtown.com/NY/local-114914.html in 1987, making postcards and notecards for local Market Street store owners before moving to Towanda Pennsylvania and beginning new commissions for local residents and store owners on Main Street before being asked by the Main Street Managers Association to aid in the fundraising to renovate and reopen the Hale Opera House as a new movie theater called the "Keystone Theater", http://www.bcrac.org/theater_keystone_history.php making a detailed illustration of the historic building and the image being sold on shirts and cards, which helped raised the needed funds to complete the renovations and re-opening the Theater in 1988.

I also did detailed pen & inks illustrations of the historic Bradford County Courthouse http://bradford-pa.com/gov/bc-gov.php that was used to help raise funds for the local hospital’s auxiliary auction and a tourism designed billboard promoting Towanda.

I was determined to do her artwork, despite my hand and how much longer it took her to draw or paint, however I worked as a volunteer since my health was deteriorating.

It was in 1984, when I was busy as a new mother that I was doing few private commissions, mostly sign painting for local stores on Staten Island as well as mural work for Dr.Jitendra Sukhadia's doctors office, that I had an accident which severed my right wrist in May of 1984 causing claw hand deformity and 85% paralysis of my right hand http://www.

I stopped persuing a career in doing my artwork and retired to the country, moving to Pennsylvania. I cut all ties with my NYC art patrons and was married, set about to raise my 5 children.

I was inspired by Joni Ericksen Tada who painted with her mouth after a skiing accident left her paralyzed yet still persued her artistic talents http://www.joniandfriends.org/ so I taped a pen or brush to my hand and began to learn to draw again.

During the early 90’s I began to do volunteer art works for the Knoxville Little League, calling herself an ’amateur’ .Soon I was asked to signs for local stores and play scenery for local churches, despite her insecurity over her ability to paint as well as she did prior to my accident.

In 2005 I travelled to the west and did some volunteer art work for places such as ’Crown Charter School’, http://www.crowncharter.com/ in Phoenix, Az., where in May 2005 I painted over 100 children’s faces, outdoors, during a school festival at called "Whacky Tacky Beach Day", in which it was over 108 degrees but rather than having fun with the water rides, kids lined up for hours in the heat of the day to have some of my art painted on their face, hands or shoulders. I did other volunteer painting at that school as well.

In November of 2005, while visiting Victory Highway Wesleyan Church in Painted Post NY, http://www.victoryhighway.com/ a request was made to the congregation for needed volunteers with artistic talent to aid in doing play scenery for a benefit play that would refill local food pantries so they could provide charity food baskets to give away for Christmas. I volunteered and worked for 5 weeks nonstop to go and create the best scenery the church ever had for their annual play, " Two from Galilee".

That Broadway style musical show was a complete success with several showings and the sets remained installed for more than a month after the show due to their beauty. I was told that the sets would be saved for future use because of the quality they were made of.

In Spring of 2006 I was asked again to do another play for the benefit of a missionary program and completed the sets in less than a week prior to surgery she was to receive. That dinner play called " Uncle Phil’s Diner" was also a success.

Around this time, my withered right hand began to regain feeling and upon medical examination was told that for some reason after 21 yrs that her hand was in fact regenerating nerves and feeling was returning.

No medical explanation could be made for this sudden improvement, so I gave all the glory to God for the return of usage to my hand and now does volunteer art wherever it can give God glory. http://www.lockhaven.com/page/content.detail/id/501549.html

My life has been full of medical disability and more which has caused me to focus less on art projects] and has done life size theatrical play sets for the ’Nutcracker Suite’ for Light of Life Performing Arts [Dance School] ministries in York Pennsylvania in December 2007 and a mural "Jesus on the Mount of Olives looking at Jerusalem", at the Charleston Chapel in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. http://www.lockhaven.com/page/content.detail/id/501548.html

Being home most of her time due to her disability, I now display and sells my artwork online modestly on shops such as www.AveHurley.etsy.com and on ebay as "AveHurleyIllustrations", making ACEO’s [ Art Cards Edition Originals" also called Art Trading Cards as well as personally made prints of my artwork for framing and greeting cards. *~*~*~ Since her accident and onset of her disability, Ave has done her artwork more as an activity but to all those who have been recipients of her talent, they remain puzzled that she doesn’t have a thriving business and are often shocked at the exceptional value and quality they receive in her art works.

With encouragement from those who love her style of art and accomplishments, Ave is now showing more and more of her works online and making them available to the general public, but for now it is mostly still by word of mouth since Ave left NYC in 1985.

Showings of her newer artworks can be readily seen in one of her online portfolios at http://www.ArtWanted.com

Those who are collecting Ave Hurley Illustrations cherish them as rare and valuable collectible art. She can be found in most search engines under AveHurleyIllustrations, AveHurley, and Ave Hurley. Now centrally found online in search engines under Ave Hurley at : http://ArtRevu.com along with over 282 artists internationally located, together showing and selling their art online.. Some of her works are sold on sites such as Etsy and Ebay, but are viewable at ArtWanted.com http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?artid=40053 and other online fine art galleries http://www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/ave-hurley.html and http://www.artistrising.com/products/225863/the-o-regan-floral-cottage.htm and MANY other showplaces, linked together at ArtRevu~

Visit me at ArtRave com and ArtRevu com :)

Artist Highlights