Teaching art to children was my other calling, as a way to give them what I missed in my own childhood and for me to work directly with the raw creativity that is a child's natural state. As I was discovering my own artist self in Berkeley, I attended a lecture at the San Francisco Art institute by Rhoda Kellogg, a Jungian psychologist and early childhood educator. This presentation of her international research on the universal quality of children's creative development, confirmed my commitment to work with children through art. Which I did following graduation and on into forty years of my life. My teaching expanded to reach students of all ages, at first in clay and later drawing, then designing and directing large community mural projects.
In 1971, I moved from the city to the country. I fell in love with Charles Illgen and the land with which he had such a strong connection. I moved from Berkeley, to join him, at a three hundred acre ranch in the hills of Napa and then a few years later, to Sonoma Valley. In an agrarian setting, surrounded by nature, growing gardens, grapes, and then children, I developed a strong relationship with Charles and with nature. This appears in my artwork and in his surreal, photographic portraits, which reflect a propensity for the spiritual and a dialogue between us. His portraits of me and my work have recorded my work paralleling my life.
photo by L. Simmel Marsha and Turu creating with clay. 1980
Photo by Charles Illgen Marsha Klein with her painting, “Cocoon Triptych” 1995