She ‘gets lost’ in her painting and drawing

Carolyn Macha has donated original encouragement greeting cards to area churches for people facing personal challenges.

“When I was about 5 years old, I would borrow my mother’s typewriter paper and trace pictures out of coloring books. One day I decided to see if I could draw some roses without tracing the picture. When I finished and showed it to my sister, she still thought I had traced it. So I put it on top of the coloring book picture and she went, ‘Oh.’ That was when I realized I could draw.

One of Carolyn Macha’s paintings.

“Then, when I was 12, my parents gave me a year of oil painting lessons with a private teacher. That taught me how to mix colors and use the equipment.

“After that, I took off on my own. I’ve been drawing and painting ever since. I just get lost in it. To this day, I love even the smell of the paint.”

What is one of your favorite projects?
“My church has this hallway that leads to all of the classrooms, and they wanted something on those walls for the children. So every day for seven months I painted murals. I divided the space into sections and did scenes from the Bible. Later, I painted more wall murals at another church for a friend who became a pastor after he retired. Those were challenging projects, but they were fun. I didn’t ask for money for either one. I thought of them more as a ministry. It was a lot of work. But when I was through, it was very gratifying.”

— Carolyn Macha