Former Jefferson County art teacher Jo Rezny McCredie, 89, said she has no plans to hang up her paint brushes anytime soon.
She continues to paint in her Arnold home and in early December, she held an open house at her home to sell some of her work.
“I paint one or two days a week,” McCredie said. “I have gotten a lot of old paintings out that I had never finished because I was always so busy. Some days, I will get a few things out, and it is either make it or break it. I either do something with it or tear it up. I have been doing that lately because I need to cut down on my inventory.
“That is one reason I thought I would try the (open house) to see if anyone would be interested.”
McCredie spent nearly three decades sharing her love and knowledge of art with hundreds of students from all around Jefferson County.
She was an art instructor at Jefferson College in Hillsboro from 1979 to 1995. She also taught art at Fox High School in Arnold from 1973 to 1979, and before that, she was an art teacher at Windsor High School in Imperial from 1968 to 1970.
McCredie said she has remained in contact with some of her students.
“She is an incredible artist,” said Cindy Coleman, 48, of Durango, Colo., who took classes under McCredie at Jefferson College from 1993 to 1995. “It is inspiring that she is still doing it at her age. I hope to be the same way.”
Call to create
McCredie said her interest in art started when she attended Lindenwood Grade School in St. Louis, which closed in 1983.
“In school, I loved art,” she said. “In the fourth grade, they chose my card to send to the principal.”
McCredie said her love of art continued when her family moved to East St. Louis, Ill., where she attended junior high and high school.
“In junior high, the teacher used to give me extra projects in art class because I was always finished with everything,” she said. “We used to enter poster contests, and I won a few of those. I went into advertising design at the University of Illinois.”
Becoming a teacher
McCredie said she moved to Arnold in 1963 with her husband, William Thomas “Bill” McCredie, who died in May 2019 when he was 87.
She said they moved to Arnold to be closer to Bill’s job at Union Electric, as well as to the Rock Community Fire Protection District, where he was a volunteer and eventually retired as chief in 1997.
“I said the only reason he pushed me to live in Arnold is because he knew they had a volunteer fire department,” McCredie said.
She and Bill had three daughters – Kim Elmore, 68; Dawn Callins Haumesser, 64; and Terri Hummel, 62, and once they got older, McCredie said she started working as a substitute teacher for the Fox C-6 School District and then got a regular teaching job at Windsor High School, where she worked for two years before returning to college to get her teaching certificate.
“I could teach for two years because I had a degree in art, even though I didn’t have a teaching certificate,” McCredie said.
McCredie said she enjoyed teaching.
“I liked the idea of being able to work and be home with them during the summer,” she said.
Jo Rezny McCredie painted 11-by-17-inch panels that were enlarged to create a mural depicting the history of Arnold. The mural is displayed at the Jefferson County Library Arnold Branch.
At Jefferson College, McCredie taught art appreciation, drawing, design, painting and print making.
“She encouraged you to try a little bit more than you were doing,” said Jan Kraus, 83, of Arnold, who was an accountant before she started taking McCredie’s art classes in 1985. “She would let you know you were doing well. If you weren’t, she would tell you what way to go with it. She was quite a good teacher.”
Coleman said one of McCredie’s best qualities as a teacher was her ability to help students refine their work.
“She sees what you are good at, and she manages to bring more out in you,” said Coleman, who owns a graphic art business called Duck Girl Art in Colorado. “She is able to help you to polish your work and make it better.”
McCredie said she loved seeing students develop their skills, adding that her style of teaching was simply to have students create art pieces, study them and find ways to improve.
“There were some who were really into it,” she said. “(Coleman) was an outstanding student, and when they needed someone for a job at the college, I recommended her. She has kept up with me ever since. She is a freelance artist and lives in Colorado. It is people like that who make you think I am glad I was there, and I hope I helped spur her on. She has done great.”
Creating
One of McCredie’s most public works is a mural at the Jefferson County Library Arnold Branch, 1701 Missouri State Road, that depicts the history of Arnold.
“I did panels that are 11-by-17 inches,” she said. “They were enlarged to about 4-feet high. I had 13 panels. I’m proud of that.”
McCredie said she is a mixed media artist, and her works are a mix of pencil drawing, watercolors, acrylic paints and other mediums or materials.
She said her work is mainly abstract and she focuses on relationships.
“That was my thing,” she said. “I did a lot of paintings with the same theme of relationships.
“It was relationships in life, shapes, color, you could go on and on.”
Kraus, who plays mahjong with McCredie once a week, said she enjoys her former teacher’s work.
“I usually don’t like abstracts, but I get her,” Kraus said. “I can see when she produces something where it came from.”
Coleman, who still shares her work with McCredie through text messages, said she is not surprised her former teacher continues to paint.
“As an artist, it is part of you,” she said. “It is not something you stop doing. It is who you are. She will do it as long as she is physically able.”