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Helen lived the life of an actress as “Peggy Coburn” at age 2 on Chicago radio through stage work from age 20 to age 70 (morphing from “Helen Meier” to “Helen Merrier”), stopped over into cabaret singing, and now
does commercials. She was recognized by Chicago Equity members with the “Spirit of the Theater Award” in 2000. And she finished marathons at 70 and 71.
A Salvation Army volunteer for over 70 years, Helen’s interest centers on keeping homeless families together in crisis. (Her mother dragged her to the Lodge when she was very young.)
Her grandmother, Jean Pond Miner, was artist-in-residence at the Columbian Exposition. People paid money to see a woman (gasp) sculpt a 14 foot statue in Lorado Taft’s studio on the Midway. Her grandfather’s uncle was Lewis Larned Coburn. His wife was really the art collector. So Helen knew what she was getting into when she married an artist in 1954.
Tim Meier was trained in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He began in the Saturday School at age six. He completed his course work in drawing, painting and illustration 19 years later. Meier’s teachers included John Rogers Cox, Paul Weighardt, and Boris Anisfeld. His greatest influence was long talks with Hans Hoffman.
Meier’s father was a mask collector who made his first collection trip to British Columbia for Northwest Coast art in 1920.
Tim grew up with African, South Pacific, Tibetan, and North American tribal and regional art in his home. Among European artists, his strongest influences were Ingres and Puvis de Chavannes, which accounts for Meier’s particular skill as a draftsman. During the 24 years he sold his work, his paintings went to every state and into at least seventy foreign countries.
You may see the number of style changes during his prolific career as a full-time artist from 1951 until 1975 at Tim’s artist site.
LET THE RECORD SHOW:
HELEN AND TIM LIVE IN A HOUSE HER GRANDPARENTS BOUGHT FOR $8,000 IN 1920. IT’S FILLED WITH BOOKS AND DEBRIS. THERE’S NO POSSIBILITY OF MOVING TO FLORIDA.