By Ruth Ford – Correspondent
Two years ago, sculptor Janice Corkin Rudolf moved to Concord to be closer to her children. What she found here, in addition to the joy of having more time with family, was a blend of creativity and activism that she says has kept her feeling younger than her 75 years.
“The history of Concord, the writing and the philosophy, all mean so much to me,” says Rudolf, who has completed sculptures of two of Concord’s most famous residents — Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott — and is just finishing sculpting another, equally famous writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Making art has always been its own reward, says Rudolf, who also teaches private students in her Concord studio — and offers swimming instruction to preschoolers and elementary school kids at the Beede Swim and Fitness Center.
She also swims on her own four times a week to keep in shape for a triathlon she is doing this summer with her son and a son-in-law.
Asked how she finds the time, let alone the vitality, for all she does, Rudolf maintains it’s the art as well as the teaching that energizes her. “I like to be productive. I like helping people,” she says. “It makes me feel wonderful.”
Early days
When Rudolf was in third grade, her family moved to Brookline, right across the street from the sculptor Peter Abate. When her father pointed out that she might like to meet the artist, Rudolf walked over by herself to say hello and see what Abate was working on.
“He was so friendly and so warm, just so welcoming,” recalls Rudolf, whose first visit began a lifetime friendship with the sculptor and professor.
Abate was in a bind when she first met him. A piece of machinery he needed wouldn’t work. The self-possessed Rudolf started tinkering and got it unstuck. Delighted and impressed, Abate handed her some clay, and Rudolf got to work on what has been a passion of hers ever since.
As her work grew and matured, Abate encouraged Rudolf to keep going. “He thought I had a lot of talent; he thought I could really sculpt,” she says. That affirmation was critical.
Tandem vocations
For Rudolf, teaching and creating have always gone hand in hand.
“My parents loved my art,” she says. “It was no question that this was what I was going to do. I did art, sculpting, painting, printmaking, drawing. I did everything.”
In high school, Rudolf took painting classes every Friday with two cousins, as well as Saturday drawing classes at the Museum of Fine Arts. Rudolf then followed her older sister to Colorado Women’s College in Denver. “They had wonderful art professors there,” she recalls.
Rudolf didn’t tell her parents until it was time to graduate that she was going to dedicate herself to her art full time. That was the first time she hit a real bump in the road.
“My dad said, ‘You can’t just do that. You have to teach.’”
To keep the peace, Rudolf enrolled at Boston University, ostensibly to get a teaching degree. At the last minute she switched to sculpture, completing a four-year intensive technical, classical, figurative sculpting program in just two years.
“I just really wanted to do it,” says Rudolf. “All my teachers said, ‘You’re going to be a sculptor, aren’t you?’”
The road to academia
After that, she enrolled in Antioch College and completed a graduate program in arts education to appease her parents.
Once she graduated with a teaching degree, Rudolf was hired by the Boston Public Schools just as the city was instituting busing as part of a move toward integration. It was a fraught time, she recalls, but her arts classes kept her moving around the city and engaging the best of what the students had to offer.
As arts instructor for three schools, Rudolf had a roster of 700 students. It was hectic but wonderful, she recalls. “The children just loved the art program. There were a lot of problems going on with race relations, but the children loved me.”
Rudolf also taught neighborhood kids how to swim in her backyard pool while her children were growing up. It was called the “art of swim camp,” and for years afterward, Rudolf would run into parents who would tell her how much their children had loved it.
Going strong
Rudolf is showing no signs of slowing down. While her work can be found in public spaces all around Boston — in the Franklin Park Zoo, at the entrance to the Wayland Garden Club, and in front of the entrance of the Sudbury Goodnow Library — Rudolf is still taking on new commissions, both to sculpt and to teach.
At the same time, Rudolf is working on an arts curriculum to teach to inmates in Massachusetts — and training for that triathlon.
“I feel better in my 70s than in my 60s,” she says. “I try to stay healthy and artistic. I just keep extremely busy.”
