Sue McCullough chuckled as she gave warning to the oddly shaped coffee table in the first floor of the Castle Art Gallery. She lightheartedly condemned it for bruising her shins every time she sat in front of it on the couch.
Behind her hung numerous brightly-colored paintings made by her late husband George McCullough. Many figuratively considered George a Van Gogh of Fort Wayne.
“He was very creative. He did something every day of his life,” Sue recalled.
George died six years ago leaving behind a prolific legacy of paintings.
The Castle Gallery at 1202 W. Wayne St. gave a tribute show for George’s paintings Sept. 29 through Oct. 31.
Sue and George met in Montana in the early 1950s. Shortly afterward, George went to New York and was designing monograms, while Sue stayed in Montana working at a Children’s Orthopedic Hospital.
“[Several years] later I went to New York with friends and looked him up,” she said.
They reconnected, and married in 1955.
After staying in New York for five years, “we went to California because his father was not well. Then after his father died he got a job in Fort Wayne.”
George started out as a stained glass designer in 1965. Then “he started working at the art school [Fort Wayne Art Institute] which was just over here on [Berry] street and then it moved out to the [IPFW] campus. He worked for them ‘til he retired,” she said.
According to IPFW records, George transferred from the Fort Wayne Art Institute to IPFW in 1976 and retired as the Associate Director of Art in 1989.
“It didn’t really seem to make a difference where he went,” Sue recalled when reminiscing of the days when they used to go out together looking for an idyllic scene to paint. “Wherever he was, he found something of interest.”
