Creating keeps them young

Randall and Rosanna McCully create more than art. Married for 11 years, after meeting at a singles dance, they also have created a blended family of 16 children and 46 grandchildren. It keeps them young, they say, to have lots of kids around, watch cartoons, learn new things and create things of beauty.

Rosanna, 56, has been painting for as long as she can remember, decorating glassware, windows and wooden objects. She even painted children’s faces as her alter ego, a clown named Zanny.

“Our work may not be great to some people, but it’s pleasurable,” said Rosanna. “It’s what we like to do.”

Their business, Zanny and Mac’s Creations, sells crafts, paintings and antiques. They incorporated antiques because they are also objects of beauty, which Rosanna includes in her artwork. A series of her paintings is framed in rustic barn wood that she purchased at an auction in Idaho.

She paints with acrylics, calling her art an expression of herself and an expression of beauty. Most of her training has come from practice and television. She watched a host of artists, including Bob Ross, who hosted the PBS series “The Joy of Painting.”

“I got a lot of valuable information,” Rosanna said, “Bob Ross taught me about ‘happy accidents’ whereas what might be thought of as an accident becomes the one thing that makes the piece complete.”

Randall McCully, 66, paints in watercolors. He specializes in nature scenes and, as an avid birdwatcher, he often paints birds.

Art came easy to Randall McCully in high school, and his counselor suggested he go into drafting after graduating. He went on to earn a commercial art degree from Portland Community College. Later, in the Navy, he learned drafting.

While stationed in Hawaii, his asthma attacks would keep him up at night. “I would draw,” he said, “and it relaxed me.” He sold quite a few pieces during that time.

He became a manufacturing engineer at Boeing until he was laid off in 2003. The couple moved to Spokane Valley where their business was born. Now Randall McCully works as a part-time security guard and Rosanna baby-sits. Both are focusing more energy on their creative endeavors.

Eventually, they found an outlet for their work at a place called Edens Off Barker, where they sell their paintings, crafts, greeting cards and antiques. And they’ve found an outlet for their imagination, channeling it into creativity.

“Art,” said Rosanna, “is a reflection of a vision.”