Friends of the Cape Canaveral Pen Women

Lilyanna Engleton, Friend -  

Suzanne Frank (Friend) - Suzanne grew up with her beloved French Canadian parents along with her three big brothers. She attended a convent, St. Michele Academy in Cornwall, Ontario, for eight years as a day student before going off to realize her career of being a cosmetologist. Her study in art had been formed early on by being around her mother who was artistic in every aspect of her life. 

As a cosmetologist Suzanne did platform work at conventions and owned two beauty salons. Later, she become a teacher and supervisor at the Art Institute of Hairdressing in Montreal while she attended McGill University. She also furthered her art studies and became an interior designer.

She later followed another dream and drove to Florida to start her new life. Eventually she married her soulmate, Marshall Frank. That's when the doors flew open and anything became possible for both of them for they had finally found freedom to pursue their passions. They moved to Maggie Valley, North Carolina where they both immersed themselves in art, him in writing and she in clay. Attending North Carolina University, she developed her skills and produced bronze pieces and aluminum art pieces and took a course with Martine Vogel the queen of sculpture.

Besides creating thousand of sculptured works in clay and porcelain, her greatest achievements were teaching clay art to over one thousand special needs children here in Brevard County. Their work was featured on a sixty foot-long wall at the Brevard Zoo in April of 2006. Another great experience was the installation of three thousand, five hundred red, white and blue banners along US HWY 1 in May of 2007, while organizing the Fallen Hero Ceremony to honor our dead soldiers.

More recently, Suzanne reveled in the opportunity to organize a two-month long art program for the students of Devereux School. She is proud to say that two of her sculptures have been presented to the former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

Elmira Hooge (Friend) - I was born in Persia; today's name is Iran. I started painting in my teenage years. After a couple of years, my parents hired a private tutor who had studied painting in Germany and from him I learned the Old Masters style of classical painting, so that became my style too. I learned how to use oil painting for my portraits and flowers and that has continued with me from Iran to Britain to the US and Canada. In Canada I learned how to paint classical portraits and flowers using watercolor, and when we moved back to the USA, I started using acrylic, and acrylic was added to my collection of media. Since my retirement I thoroughly enjoy myself by doing more arts and crafts, like painting on rocks, greeting cards, and bird houses, but I am still painting on canvas quite a bit. I also make delightful earrings.

Deby Johnson, Friend, Meeting Coordinator  -   

My bio is short! I love crafts and reading, and since joining Pen Women I am writing poems.

Barbara Mead, Friend  -  

Anne Parks Mitchell, Friend  -  I was born in Syracuse New York and moved to Fort Lauderdale when I was 10 years old. At age 13, I moved to Satellite Beach to live with my aunt and uncle. I attended Eau Gallie Junior High for 9th grade. Courtney and Elaine Stone were family friends, so I got to know Cathy in ninth grade. What a small world now that I am living in Viera we will meet again so many years later. After graduating from Fort Lauderdale high school, I received a bachelor’s in education from Temple University and then a master’s in early childhood education from Westfield State I taught kindergarten and gifted education for several years both in Massachusetts and Florida. I earned an Ed. D from Nova University in 1983 and later received a M. Ed In Counseling/Psychology. My final years in education were spent as a guidance counselor at a performing arts elementary school in Fort Lauderdale. I retired in 1999 to travel extensively and enjoy all the performing arts venues that South Florida has to offer. Some of my favorite trips were to Israel, Australia, and Germany. I’ve enjoyed visiting other cultures and meeting new people. Last August I moved to Viera to be close to my daughter and her family. I’m really enjoying my life here. I joined a book club, attend many activities at One Senior Place, and enjoy taking water aerobics classes. I found you ladies through One Senior Place and I’m very happy to become a Friend!

Barbara Rios, Friend  -   Capturing the fleeting beauty of life with a camera or a paintbrush has been a lifelong need for Barbara. She has learned that it may not be there tomorrow… Barbara is self-taught from constantly reading, observing other artists, making notes on scraps of paper, and experimenting. The result is a wide variety of subjects, styles and materials, but she is best known for her use of vivid and, sometimes, unnatural colors, such as a green and blue zebra! Many of her “failed” paintings have been dumped in the tub, soaked, squeezed, torn, and recreated into something new. Artist Sterling Edwards’ phrase “creative restlessness” best describes Barbara. Her recent “Whimsey” series is created by making a story out of marbleized webbing randomly sprayed onto paper. Not only has this challenge expanded her imagination, it has given her many hours of pure joy. As part of the National Art in Public Places Program, her paintings are actively displayed throughout Brevard County, Florida, in city halls, libraries, hospitals, and many other public locations. She is most proud and honored that her painting, “Your Brothers Salute You” is a permanent part of the All Veterans of Brevard’s Traveling Wall which continuously exhibits across the United States. Her painting depicts a solemn, military ceremony with a horse-drawn caisson which bears the body of a veteran in a flag-draped casket. Since retirement from a career in real estate, Barbara has been very involved with the Brevard Watercolor Society (BWS), but is currently affiliated with numerous, professional art groups. She actively enters juried shows and has won a number of awards, including 1st Place in the BWS Splash 2014 annual show. She enjoys sharing her artistic knowledge with others and has given countless demonstrations for BWS, on local cable shows, senior groups, and schools. Her website is www.ArtbyBarbaraRios.com

Holly Schwartztol, Friend  -    

Holly W. Schwartztol is a poet, novelist, a retired psychologist and a spiritual intuitive. She grew up in New York City. Her father, James A. Wechsler, was a renowned journalist. Holly attended the Dalton School in Manhattan, after which she graduated from Finch College. She holds a Masters in Psychology from C.W Post College and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Miami. Holly was a school psychologist in Dade County for eleven years. She was in private practice for nearly forty years. In the mid-nineties she and a colleague opened a holistic center in Miami called MIEL. She was president of many professional organizations, including the Dade County Psychological Association (1988) and the Florida Society of Clinical Hypnosis (2001). When Holly was in her fifties, her creative writing began to emerge more fully. She has published three novels since 2005 (Sherry and the Unseen World; What We Tell (2012); and Coming Around Again (2019). She writes poetry, many of which have placed in the Faulkner writing competition and finally published a volume of poetry called Along My Garden Path: Poems on the Rhythms of Life in 2020. Holly’s fictional characters take the lead and guide her to write the story. Her poems nearly fall out of her; rarely does she sit down to “write a poem”. She’s tapped by her muse and must write no matter where she is at any time of day or night. Holly is a past president of the South Florida Writers Association (SWFA). She left Miami over eight years ago. During the pandemic, she was able to attend SWFA on zoom and is now a Director at Large for that group. Holly likes to encourage aspiring writers and teaches memoir writing. This began as a course at the Cape Canaveral Library. When the pandemic hit, her class went to zoom and now she teaches two such classes online. Holly’s psychology background and spiritual studies inform her writing about the intricacies of human relationships and the continuation of consciousness. She lives in Cape Canaveral with her husband. They have three children and five grandchildren. Holly spends leisure time doing jigsaw and crossword puzzles, walking on the beach, swimming, reading and, of course, writing.