My grandparents were resourceful and inventive and dabbled in visual art. My grandfather drew the self-portrait below at age 17 in 1917. My grandmother and grandfather started a floral business, making crepe paper flowers with dies my grandmother designed and machines that my grandfather devised.

Barbara Knuckles’ grandfather, self-portrait at age 17

Their son, my father, Robert Hoffman (1930-2017), was interested in art from childhood. His dog “Skippy” is the earliest drawing we have. He studied for a while at the American Academy in Chicago and took classes or workshops with artists he admired. As a native of Gary, he gravitated to the lake and dunes. He worked more than full-time at Inland Steel as a Bricklayer, and volunteered at church, the Gary Artists League, and Boy Scouts. He set aside time to paint. After his three kids grew up and left home, he retired at 50 and began working as an artist full-time.

Robert Hoffman and wife posing with early painting, (1951)

I grew up with a dad who could figure out and build anything, at least in my eyes. He was not around much, working rotating shifts, volunteering and painting. My dad was curious, analytical, and a tenacious problem solver. He looked at his work with a critical eye, figuring out what was wrong in order to make it better. His work kept improving, but it made it hard for me to pursue art around him, because he looked at my work the same way. Although I drew all the time as a kid, I didn’t do much more at home until I moved to Indianapolis to go to art school. Although I have been in Indy for my whole adult life, my roots remain in NW Indiana dune and steel country. Both are an ineradicable part of who I am. I too am analytical and a problem solver, which led me into printmaking at Herron School of Art. With this show, I have returned to an old photo printmaking medium, cyanotype, incorporating drawing, photos, and color in layered collages.

Barbara Knuckles
*Shoreline Navigation*
Cyanotype and Mixed Media
8 1/2” x 11”

My daughter, Bethany Sanders, drew from the time she could grip a marker. Whimsical animals floated Chagall-like through her pictures. By age five, she had decided that she wanted to be an author and illustrator. In High School, she encountered graphic novels like Maus and Persepolis and was struck by the visceral power of that medium. After earning a painting degree from Herron, she transitioned into digital art and began work on her first online graphic novel (Pelkern.com). Bethany also has an analytical streak, and loves researching odd plants and creatures.

Bethany Sanders, *kindergarten drawing of a lion with a huge ice cream cone*

Bethany Sanders, *early drawing of wolf and racoon*

How is a legacy of creativity and art nurtured from generation to generation? None of us were over-praised; if anything, we faced our toughest critics at home. Artwork was a normal thing to do, creativity was expected and unexceptional, and materials were available, consisting of ordinary school supplies like paper, pencils, crayons, and markers. There are common threads through all of our lives: curiosity, a sense of wonder, unscheduled time spent gazing at ordinary things, doing nothing but thinking or dreaming, and taking delight in the intricacies and beauty of the world around us.

See Generation, an exhibit featuring the work of Robert Hoffman, Barbara Knuckles, and Bethany Sanders in the Harrison Center’s online gallery.