Growing up in the farming area of Baltimore County, Md., Ginnie Conaway was always around critters from dogs to chickens to cows.
She went on to show dogs competitively and started drawing them, as well as the dogs of competitors.
“I showed Dobermanns and Whippets for decades,” Conaway said.
In 2003, after spending her adult life in Wilmington, Del., and getting a divorce, Conaway decided to live elsewhere.
“I bought an RV and I started traveling around the country to figure out where I wanted to live,” Conaway said.
Her traveling companion was her last show dog — Travis, a Dobermann.
After a stint in West Virginia, she turned her attention to a city in a neighboring state.
“Winston-Salem, which was close relatively, had the reputation for being ‘The City of the Arts,’” she said.
Conaway, 71, has lived in Winston-Salem since 2005. It’s where she met her current husband, Bill Forrest.
Also, in 2005, she was hired by Sawtooth School for Visual Art to teach watercolor. She teaches drawing and painting primarily to seniors in the personal enrichment program at Forsyth Technical Community College. She is also an art instructor for Senior Services Inc. and Brookridge, a Baptist retirement homes community, both in Winston-Salem.
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