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S  OME OF our rural artists paint to while away lonely
   hours, others seek to create in the outer world some-
thing which can express an inner tension. Iris Tellefson
paints as naturally as she would bake a cake or take a
walk down the lane. Were it not for her art she would
seem just a typical, healthy, town-country girl-soci-
able, humorous, good-looking, but unpretentious. The
cares of this world rest easily on her shoulders, but she
does not hesitate to assume responsibilities. She is light-
hearted and gay but knows how to become seriously in-
tent on her training to be a good painter.
  Her birthplace was a farm near the present home-
place. Her grandparents stem from Norway, Ireland.
and Germany, and in this country plied the trades of the
IRIS FURMAN TELLEFSON
ROUTE 5, OSHKOSH
f4&' To
logger, farmer, carpenter, harnessmaker, and black-
smith. Her father was born on a farm twelve miles
west of Neenah and has farmed most of his life. He
studied pharmacy and ran a drug store in Oak Park,
Illinois, for a few years, but the farm drew him back
in 1916 to his present location, a few hundred yards
from the western shore of Lake Winnebago.
  Iris Furman attended eight grades in the Winnebago
County school and felt indifferent to the piecemeal
drawing lessons. Her sister could draw better than she,
and when the pictures were hung up on the wall, Iris
did not like it. But she was not spurred on to do better
work. High school art classes beginning in the sopho-
more year were even more of a fiasco as far as her in-
terest was concerned. Starting out to take two years'
art instruction, she was so bored the first year that she
changed over to something else. She found herself
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