Art through the Generations
...from teacher to students
Dolores Bridges Mote (born September 4, 1927)
Dolores Bridges Mote credits her art teacher, Esther Painter Hagstrom, with enabling her to graduate from Coronado High school in three years. Consequently, Dolores is class of 1945 instead of 1946.
“The war was on,” Dolores said, referring to World War II and recalling that she wanted to get a job and marry her high school sweetheart, Charles Mote, class of 1944. “She (Esther Hagstrom) gave me instructions, the class work and whatever she planned for the whole year. She told me what to do. I came in quarterly. I gave her my work, and she gave me credit for the class.”
Dolores Bridges Mote
with one of her portraits
Following his naval service in World War II, Charles and Dolores settled in Chula Vista to start a family. The minister of the First Christian Church there encouraged Dolores to take art lessons at the nearby recreation center. “The minister said, ‘You’re an artist!’ I painted when my babies were little.” After Dolores painted the face of Santa Claus on the bay window of her home, her husband insisted that she decorate his small business, the former Chuck’s Service, a Mobil gasoline station. Her holiday paintings on large windows facing Broadway and H streets became an annual exhibit in Chula Vista.
Dolores Bridges
Coronado High School class of 1945
Since the Motes moved to El Cajon in 1972, Dolores has attended painting classes weekly at the La Mesa Adult Enrichment Center. “I learn from all the instructors there and from the other students,” Dolores says. “It’s a lot of fun. You learn just by being there.”
Dolores imparted her love of painting and lifelong learning to her children. Her son, Michael Mote, of Santa Cruz, is a professional artist now working primarily in oils. Her daughter, Pati Mote Reid, of Irvine, specializes in acrylics as her hobby.
Slide Show
(Please click on the "thumbnails" below to view John Clamplitt's watercolors.)
