Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 33

jDftHn jlrtSG TIlO TimGSUcraI(l Saturday. May 7. 1983 lnUQWii(SS TVComics iU i ijfer i WOMAN IN BLACK mj Ml jar a a a i ait NAIVE '3 v- '-V ids .4 4 i rm. I Sue Bleakley gets lost in striking colors and repeating patterns OA-5 7 17 3 BOOK OF SEEDS A 4 I 1 1 ,4 1 11 in 4A of three remembers her first days as a painter as if they were the beginning of a new life. "What I began was a process of getting in touch with myself," she says, glancing over the working canvases scattered around her makeshift home studio.

"It was like getting in contact with my senses for the first time." painting, she's become an accomplished artist with a primitive, yet strikingly sophisticated style. One of the world's foremost collectors of naive art has bought and sold dozens of her works. The 42-year-old Englishwoman is living in Newport News this year while her husband, Alan, teaches psychology at Christopher Newport College. The mother By MARK ST. JOHN ERICKSON Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS Sue Bleakley had no idea how much her life would change when she reached down and picked up her daughter's new box of poster paints 12 years ago.

The colors were so vivid, she thought, turning them over in her hand. A brilliant pink. A flashing yellow. A languid blue. The paints were a gift from a friend for her daughter's third birthday.

But Bleakley couldn't resist an urge to try them herself. She began by copying a painting her father had given her. It was a beautifully executed picture of two children on a rocking horse. "Halfway through I got bored," she laughs, remembering her fit of impatience and gumption. "I wanted to change it.

I thought, 'I can do better than "I did the first two or three paintings on cardboard boxes dress boxes they were. After that, I couldn't wait to clear the kitchen each night and get the paints out." These days, Bleakley moves her brush across the canvas in pursuit of an original, sometimes disturbing vision. Though she has no formal training in drawing and Bright, vigorous colors were some of the most important things she discovered when she began to look inside herself. "I have a kind of love affair with color," she says. "This green is going to be a new one for me.

I just learned how to enjoy yellow. "What used to happen was that I would get lost in the color and pattern. The more repetitive it was, the better. It became a sort of meditation." Bleakley also found an unexpectedly rich storehouse of vivid memories and observations to turn into paintings. Many had some striking visual element like the pattern of an old candy shop's black-and-white tiled floor and its rows and rows of colorful, candy-filled jars.

Some paintings, like the still lifes of old crocks and flowers or the picture of an old painted blanket chest, reflected Bleakley's experience as an antiques dealer. She calls such pictures "sweet" now, but here and there are signs of a harder edge. "There's always something falling over," she says, laughing as she pulls a photo of a shopf ront street scene from a jumbled, overstuffed folder. "Look here, this man is falling off his crutches. And Please see Art, D3 i 'V r- w( -v 'What I began was a process of getting in touch with myself.

It was like getting in contact with my senses for the first Sue Bleakley used the painting In the background to depict her thoughts that people are too busy looking at themtelvet to notice the beauty surrounding them Staff photo by ADRIN SNIDER yvuvvi is in a aogrignt 10 gei uacK on top "We've been getting our image back in order. That's very important. We're out in the streets, spreading the word, doing community interest projects. If you went out to the streets today, the word you hear is that WOWI's back." Last chance This is your last chance to reach into the past for your favorite baseball glove memory. We're looking for true tales of baseball gloves.

A glove that came to you through unusual circumstances, a glove that has made' unbelievable plays, a special hand-me-down from an older brother or sister. i Tell us about your glove, and we'll print the best in Dimensions May 29. First place receives $100; runners-up win $25. Send entries to Baseball Glove Contest, Features Department, P.O. Box 746, Newport News 23607.

Entries must be received in one of the newspapers' offices by 5 p.m. Monday. Copies of entries should be made, since none will be the long haul. "We've been our image back in order. That's very important.

We're out in the streets, spreading the word, doing community interest projects. If you went out to the streets today, the word you hear is that WOWI's back." In an attempt to re-ignite, WOWI're-cently adopted the tag "Hot 103" and added new morning man "Smokin' Tony Richards. WMYK answered with a new program director, Don Allen, former PD at WOWI. The real powerhouse, however, is Bishop Willis. At age 59, he owns both WOWI and WPCE (1400 AM) and pre-sides over 70 Virginia churches fran-chised by the Church of God in Christ organization of Memphis, Tenn.

According to radio insiders, Willis wields Please see WOWI, D3 WOWI is currently "dogfighting," as Mahone put it, with urban contemporary rival, WMYK (93.7 FM). The barking and biting have never been more intense now that WOWI came from behind to beat WMYK in Arbitron's winter ratings. The battle is still the most explosive on Hampton Roads radio. For WOWI, on the air since 1973, winning the war has meant re-establishing its credentials. "This station used to dominate the urban market," said program director Ron "The Good Doctor" Atkins, who joined the station late last year.

"It slipped in the early '80s when there was too much change-over. A lot of program directors were brought in but left before leaving a mark. Commitment tends to fall off when a station keeps' changing hands." Atkins, however, has signed on for By BILLY WARDEN Staff Writer WOWI-FM is a radio station with a proud history, solid urban-contemporary programming and plenty of suitors knocking at its door. Last week, Glenn Mahone, owner of WPLZ-FM in Petersburg, revealed ongoing plans to buy WOWI (102.9). He said $8 million sounded "about in the price range.

It doesn't sound outlandish." Mahone first approached WOWI owner Bishop L. E. Willis "less than a year ago." Willis turned him down, and while there are no negotiations currently under way, Mahone is definitely still interested. "If I didn't think that radio station had the potential to hit the top, I wouldn't be trying to buy it," Mahone said from his Petersburg office..