Frances Myers Colescott

Frances Myers Colescott Age 78, passed away in Madison on December 17, 2014 after suffering a stroke. Fran was born in Racine on April 16, 1936 to Stephen Myers, Sr. and Bernadette Myers (née Gales). She graduated from St. Joseph's Grade School, St. Catherine's High School, Class of 1954 and the University of Wisconsin Madison. She also studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and earned a Master of Fine Art from UW-Madison. She was an internationally acclaimed artist, printmaker and art professor at UW-Madison. While growing up in Racine, with all of its Frank Lloyd Wright homes and buildings, including the Johnson Wax Building and Tower, Frances was influenced to create a stunning series of etchings of a number of Wright's most famous buildings. In addition to her many years as an inspirational art teacher and printmaker, she expanded her work into digital photography and video. Her work has been collected by many of the worlds top museums and collections, including the Chicago Institute of Art, the National institute of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Chasen Institute of Art and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. In addition, some twenty examples of her work are owned by and have been displayed at the Racine Art Museum. She twice received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts. She was recently named the Art Teacher of the Year by the College Art Association. She also received the Wisconsin Visual Art Life Time Achievement Award. Since 1977, her work had been reviewed or published by 150 regional and national periodicals including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times. She is survived by her husband, Warrington Colescott, a renowned artist, printmaker and professor. Her siblings include her sister Mary Ann Coffey and brother Stephen Myers, both of Racine, and sisters Nancy Conte, South Promfret, VT and Dr. Jane Drew, Newport Beach, CA. A memorial service for Fran will be held in Madison on March 7, 2015,