THE LEPORE FAMILY Nurturing talent

By NANCILYNN GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
James Lepore and Jeanne L. Handel didn't have a formula for bringing up artistic children, but somehow all four of their offspring chose creative careers.
The younger James Lepore is a modern dancer who teaches at George Mason University. Michele Lepore Hagan has her bachelor's degree from Ohio University in modern dance and is the director of the Performing Art Series at Youngstown State University.
Michael Jeffrey Lepore is a nationally ranked ballroom dancer. He was a professional modern dancer. Nanette Lepore is an internationally known fashion designer.
Even Michele's daughter, Natalia, has studied dance at Ballet Western Reserve for nine years.
They all were exposed to the arts at a young age.
"We constantly took them to art shows and theater. When my four were young, I would string a clothesline and put big sheets of paper that I got at a sign company with clothespins. My kids and the neighbor kids would paint all day long until they decided to start running around," said Handel.
Some of the Lepore children's talent is inherited. Their father, James, is an abstract/expressionist artist and former YSU professor whose own talent was recognized when he was quite young.
"I had recognition when I was very young, fourth and fifth grade. I began to go to The Butler Museum of Art to take classes. I was given encouragement there also. In high school I won a first award in watercolor in the city of Youngstown competition," said Lepore.
What inspired him
The Campbell native took inspiration from his father's work.
"When I was 12 or 13, my father was a steel worker. At night I would have black charcoal and pieces of paper and I would draw faces of steel workers. How hard they worked and how their faces were so tired. I can still remember my parents remarking about these drawings that I was making. They knew my interest in art wasn't going to go away, and they encouraged me a great deal," said Lepore.
Lepore graduated from Youngstown College and became an art teacher. He taught at Hillman Junior High School, left the area and returned to teach art education at Youngstown College, transferring to the art department to teach drawing and painting, design and art history for 35 additional years.
He had a studio at his residence and he displayed his work throughout the house.
"Growing up with my father's abstract paintings on the wall and the fact that there was no represented form in those paintings had a profound influence on how all of us defined art. Art was about expression that had no literal translation," said eldest son James.
He continued, "As a young kid, I defended the work that my neighborhood friends would see on the wall. They would say, 'I could do that.' I defended modern art/abstract art in a way that's pretty sophisticated. It's not supposed to be anything. It's an expression. It's an emotion. It's a sense of movement and action and color and form. We were sort of saturated in ideas of modernism that, obviously, profoundly influenced the directions that all of us chose."
The younger James Lepore chose to express himself through dance. He has a master's degree in fine arts from Temple University. He did not select his career path until he was a student at YSU. He had always been athletic, but his parents thought he would pursue an academic field such as art history.
Life choices
"I think all of us can benefit from ways of finding expression in our lives. You need to be able to consider that as a possibility as a life choice. Those choices aren't easy in this society that so emphasizes materialism and monetary gain. You're going against the tide, so you have to come from a pretty secure place to begin to explore those options," said James Lepore.
With his brother and sister Michele as an example, Michael Jeffrey Lepore also chose a dance career. He has a bachelor's degree in dance from Ohio State University.
"I remember I was the skeptic and my father convinced me that life was short and it was more important to explore our full potential than to just worry about the end game at my age. He helped me feel good about this alternative route," said Michael Jeffrey
He works as a physical therapist for the Department of Education in New York, competing in ballroom dance two to three weekends a month.
"When I was in physical therapy school, we had one class, and the teacher asked us to write down one thing that we remember our father saying when we were growing up. I was the only person in the whole class to say, 'Have fun.' Other kids said 'Work hard' or 'Don't slack off.'
"It's a little bit of an insight into how somebody could raise an artistic family," said Michael Jeffrey.