Company News

The United Way of Central Maryland asked me to design/create a fine art memorial piece for a very special philanthropic benefactor of theirs who had recently passed away. The piece was formally presented to the husband and family in honor of this most special woman. Below is the actual art piece our studio created for the occasion, as well as my artist statement which accompanied the piece.      

The Beauty She Reflects

When The United Way of Central Maryland approached me about designing a special art gift to commemorate a new giving society in honor of the late Mrs. Jane B. Meyerhoff, one painting in my collection instantly came to mind…titled “The Beauty She Reflects”.  

The Beauty She Reflects depicts a strong and regal tree, firmly anchored into a majestic, rolling, serene landscape. She stands tall and proud, engulfed in a vibrant and lush leaf canopy…limbs outstretched as if reaching out,  ever ready to provide shade, comfort, protection or just a nice place to rest.  Compassionate, nurturing, intuitive and loving, this is my artistic interpretation of a true Giving Tree. It’s fitting then, that The Beauty She Reflects represents all that Mrs. Meyerhoff encompassed.      

If the tree represents Mrs. Meyerhoff, then it seems particularly appropriate for the landscape to abstractly portray Mr. Meyerhoff.  I cannot help but think of him when I re-read the words of the original artist statement for this watercolor painting. 

“You rose from me, exploding..
You grow from me, dazzling
With morning softness
And peacock pride
And I swell and smile
At the beauty you reflect
On me,
And the sunset you will paint in the waiting sky.”

As an artist, I am known for my Tree Paintings.  I often assign human qualities and characteristics to objects in nature…it just seems a natural stretch. Like people, each tree is beautiful and unique in its own way.  I am honored that my artwork will memorialize such a special woman.  

Michelle “Shell” Rummel

About Jane Meyerhoff:

Jane Meyerhoff, a philanthropist and collector who was a major donor of modern art, most of it American, passed away in October of 2004. She was 80.

For nearly 50 years, Mrs. Meyerhoff and her husband, Robert, a real estate developer, collected art by American masters like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella, which filled Fitzhugh Farm, their 300-acre home and horse farm about an hour and a half north of Washington. Over the years, as the collection grew, the Meyerhoffs built a series of galleries attached to their house. Some were devoted to the work of a single artist like Lichtenstein, others had a mix of works. One, which Mrs. Meyerhoff called her "old masters,'' had paintings by Rothko, Pollock, Kline and de Kooning. Also over the years the couple became friends with many of the artists whose work they collected and would often name horses either after an artist or one of their famous works. In 1987 they announced they would donate their collection, which experts say is worth well over $300 million, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, becoming the gallery's largest single-gift donor after Andrew W. Mellon and the gallery's founding benefactors. For years other museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, courted the couple in the hope that someday the collection would become theirs. But officials at the gallery seemed to make the best case, convincing the couple the art should go to the nation. The Meyerhoffs made their first donation to the gallery in 1986 when they provided the money to buy Barnett Newman's "Stations of the Cross'' (1958-66), a series of 14 canvases regarded by contemporary art experts as Newman's most important work. Ten years later the gallery organized a show of the Meyerhoffs' collection, which included 194 works and filled major portions of two levels of the East Building.

Art was not the couple's only area of their philanthropy. In 1988 they established the Meyerhoff Scholar Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore campus, which has become a leading science-education initiative for African-Americans.