Violet R. Reilly (1925-2023)
Violet Roysten McCluskey Reilly 46 IL died in 2023 at the age of 98. Violet began taking weekend art classes at RISD at the age of 11 and graduated in 1946 with a BFA in Illustration. Her career as an artist, art teacher, and art therapist took her many places, from Guanajuato, Mexico, where she studied with famed muralist David Alfaro Siquieros and Paris, France, where she enrolled at Grand Chaumiere and the Ecole de Beaux Artes. Violet and her family settled in the Chicago area in the 1970s, where she worked as an pediatric art therapist and served as a longtime member of the Illinois Art Therapy Association.
The RISD’s 1946 yearbook, for which she served as art director, included a short blurb about each graduate. Violet’s was a poem, reading:
A short drink of water—Vi McCluskey—
In level seven 'til it's dusky—
"Homework done?" says I to she—
I show her one — "Well, uh- I did three—”
Three sketches, that is—
Dark hair, small voice, and what a whiz!
