Early setbacks derailed her art career for decades. Now she has her first solo show at age 70
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Discouragement at an early age nearly derailed Cathy Prescott’s confidence as an artist.
She regained it as a retiree with the help of an adult coloring book, a need for decorations at her Airbnbs and a few scraps of art paper she got from a dollar store.
Now, at age 70, Prescott is debuting her first ever solo art show.
“There’s been a 50-year span between doing much of anything,” she said. “All those years and now here I am, 70, and look at that. It’s just mind blowing to me.”
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Prescott has a series of original pieces on display starting today at Nostalgic Dwelling, a vintage furniture and decor shop at 4230 Charles St. The exhibit runs through May 19.
Her goal wasn’t to land an art show when she showed her work to Stephanie Towell, who runs Nostalgic Dwelling with her husband, Brad. With her confidence bruised from early dejection and years away from art, she didn’t see herself as worthy of a large display.
“I’ve never been really confident that my art is really art, and that anybody would ever want it,” said Prescott, an Orangeville native who has spent the past 40 years in Rockford. “I kind of just did it more for myself.”
The Towells disagreed, and made Prescott their first featured artist at the shop, which opened in February.
“She’s just a very genuine person. We just connected with her and saw how sincere she was, so humble,” Brad Towell said. “She’s almost embarrassed to share her art with us.”
The exhibit is not an official part of the Rockford Area Arts Council’s Spring ArtScene, but the opening does coincide with Day 2 of the biannual gallery walk. The Towells were fans of both Prescott as an artist and a person, and felt that she deserved support for the work she’s done.
“She didn’t want an opening or any sort of fanfare,” Stephanie Towell said. “She didn’t want her name on the wall, we did that anyway.”
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Her work is a mix of geometric shapes and floral designs with muted tones that she creates with a simple mix of supplies emblematic of her own humility.
She primarily uses a No. 2 pencil, a felt tip Sharpie marker and a couple of colored pencils to create the pieces on art paper she buys on the cheap.
“Everybody’s kind of surprised that it’s just such simple things that I use,” she said. “It’s all just about shading.”
It took years for Prescott to rebuild her confidence after early experiences soured her.
“As a kid growing up, I was pooh-poohed a lot,” she said. “Even the teacher would think that I was tracing and copying things. My mom kept getting called in from time to time to prove that I really did this piece of art in art class.”
Life also got in the way of art for Prescott, who spent about 17 years working in the graphics department at Micro Switch in Freeport. She worked for years for American TV after that. She and her late husband, Dennis, also ran an Australian import shop at Edgebrook called Major Roo.
“I had lost my confidence in my art, and I just didn’t think I’d ever do art ever again,” she said.
She picked up drawing again when she needed decorations for Airbnbs she operated with her husband. She started just filling in designs in an adult coloring book to rebuild her confidence. Then, she started making her own creations from scratch.
“I get a flash of an idea in my head and then I start drawing it and the idea evolves,” she said. “I just kind of started and my confidence built as I was going along, but I didn’t think it was real art. It was just something I made up and I did and I liked it, and it fit my house and my Airbnbs.”
When her husband died from cancer in March 2020, Prescott sold her Airbnbs and started doing more art for herself. Her work had started as a way to decorate her own properties, now buyers are finding it fits theirs, too.
“It really took my eye, it just grabs you when you walk in,” said Mary Christian of Roscoe, who bought the first piece on Friday before opening day. “It looks like something I wanted to find a place for in my house.”
Prescott refers to the floral art patterns as her “funky flowers period,” a fitting name for an artist who turned out to be a late bloomer.
About the show | Cathy Prescott at Nostalgic Dwelling
Where: 4230 Charles St., Rockford
Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; weekdays by appointment
When: Saturday, April 20 through Sunday, May 19
Contact: 779-970-7757
On social: On Instagram @nostalgicdwelling
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas
