Q: You have mentioned how you mother and father encouraged your pursuit of the arts. What was their connection to the arts and how did they encourage you?
MACNEIL: My mother was a national skiwear designer. She was respected within the industry and was part of the team that designed skiwear for the Olympics in 1980. I went with her to my first jewelry class.
My father was a mechanical engineer and he made me my first little buffer in our basement so that I could start making jewelry.
Clippings featuring the work of Nancy MacNeil
The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg website, courtesy of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library's Visual Resources Collections. Founded in 1923, Perry Dean Rogers was the architectural firm responsible for the restoiation.
Q: Your grandfather Robert Charles Dean (1903-1997), American Architect, (MIT 1927) was a great influence on your life and work. Notable projects he worked on included: the 1936 original Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, Va. pictured above, known today as known as the world’s largest “living history” museum; the United States National Cemetery, Cambridge, England; and the Campus of Furman University, Greenville, SC. What are your memories of him and how did he impact your path as an artist?
MACNEIL: My grandfather’s influence on me was profound. He was distinguished, well respected, and loved by his large family. He devoted thought and time toward his house, which he designed, and toward making sculptures and paintings in his studio (pictured below). I spent many days with him at work in his studio, as a helper and learning various skills. He was a scholarly man, with a large library of books he had read, and he listened often to classical music.
As retired US Army General and a Partner in his architectural firm, PERRY DEAN & ROGERS, he was authoritative yet he was very kind and gentle with us children, and took the time to know and understand us individually while helping in ways according to our interests.
He was instrumental in my becoming a professional artist because he was a professional artist, and he encouraged me.
Robert Charles Dean, portraits by Linda’s Great Uncle, Richard Andrew
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Linda MacNeill was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, a suburb in greater Boston, the daughter of mechanical engineer, George Ellis MacNeil, born 1931, Wellesley, MA. and national, skiwear designer, Nancy Dean MacNeil, born 1932, Boston. Her Uncle and Grandfather, both architects.