M.J. Price follows a different approach to life, from playing football to her doctorate in parapsychology.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published May 18, 2003
ZEPHYRHILLS - M.J. Price - parapsychologist, artist, author, belly dancer, tai chi instructor, animal behaviorist, skydiver and former professional football player - is out of work.
A car accident in December has left her with lingering back pain and a lot of time on her hands, but somehow this Jane-of-all-trades keeps on keeping busy.
"I love to learn new things," said Price, a tall, striking woman with bright eyes and shiny blond hair. "And once I learn them and become good, I love to share them with other people."
Price - her friends call her "Doc" or "M.J." - helps her husband, Marcus, run their downtown Zephyrhills shipping business, Goin' Postal. She volunteers in community events and works in her yard and around the house. Standing for too long is painful, so she does things in short spurts.
And, always, she has her art.
Price's latest collection is called Trailer Trash and Treasures. The first painting uses flashy colors and puffy materials and is inspired by a quilt - it depicts different people and objects in each "patch."
"The garden gnomes and pink flamingos are the trash," Price, 32, said. "The treasures are the senior citizens."
That work recently was displayed at the Zephyrhills Senior Center during its May Day celebrations. Before that, her series on skydivers was in City Hall.
Interpreting photographs taken mid-plumment, Price painted groups of jumpers forming spirals, holding hands, legs flying high, with swirls of color in the background. Her gocco prints of individual jumpers use thin lines and primary colors.
Although she doesn't jump anymore, skydiving has played a major role in Price's life. It's how she met her husband, and it's what brought her to Zephyrhills.
She met Marcus Price, a filmmaker and expert skydiver from England, on her first jump, in New York. Once they got together, they eventually made their way to southwest Florida with a skydiving group and bought an old school bus, which they lived in for three years.
Painted in black and white zebra stripes, the bus held a big shower, queen-sized bed and full kitchen. The Prices moved out only because they had to - they got a dog.
"I will live in a bus again," Price said nostalgically.
But their two-story house on Eighth Street has given her a vast, blank canvas. The upstairs bathroom is decorated like a lush seascape, with fish, dolphins, manatees and vibrant plants painted on the walls and ceiling. Some accents in the paint even glow in the dark.
Each room in the house is painted a different, rich color, all according to the principles of feng shui (which means "wind and water" in Chinese and is the ancient science of balancing the elements within the environment). The blood-red dining room is Price's favorite.
Some of her skydiving works hang on the walls, along with numerous wedding pictures. An intaglio print, with heavy lines and varying shades of gray, depicts a woman in chains. Words like "compulsion," "failure," "pride" and "need" are etched around her.
The print is a self-portrait of Price, evoking her previous struggles with eating disorders.
"I'm a printmaker at heart," she said of her favorite medium. "I just don't have the supplies."
In every corner of the house, there's evidence of her handiwork. Tiny decorations adorn the light switch covers. She has added her unique touch to several picture frames. Even the glass in the bedroom windows bears her imprint. She painted jewel-tone patterns on the panes, giving the room a mystical quality.
"So few things in our grown-up lives are magical," Price said. "Any time you can bring magic into your life, you should."
For the door of the master bedroom, Price did a multimedia work based on Gustav Klimt's The Embrace. But she painted the characters in the likeness of her husband and herself and even incorporated pieces of their bedspread in the work.
The one piece that seems out of place in the house is a large painting of a mountain scene hanging in the living room. Its harsh shades of brown stand out from the other colors in the room. But Price and her husband, while shopping one day at the Goodwill store in Lutz, both were drawn to it.
Turns out, the painting is a Bruce Mitchell original, worth about $3,500. They paid $16.
In many ways, Zephyrhills is a curious place for a progressive young artist to live.
A Bohemian lifestyle could draw some stares in the small town.
Price, who greets new people with the warmth of a family member, has a doctorate in parapsychology (through distance learning from American International University in Hawaii), the scientific study of the paranormal. She performs services like clearing people's houses of negative vibes by burning herbs.
But she is used to a little ridicule for her offbeat ways.
"My husband doesn't believe in any of it," she said. "He thinks it's a bunch of malarkey."
Some of her artwork is slightly risque. One common theme is relationships between women, including homosexual relationships.
"I'm really connected to a lot of really intelligent, pro-active women," she said. Her favorite works capture "women interacting with each other in meaningful, supportive ways."
But most aspects of Price's life and experiences are simply interesting, even amusing.
This earthy woman who wears colorful, drapey clothing and ornate jewelry used to be a preppy, die-hard Republican. She grew up in the Adirondacks and once considered joining the Marine Corps. These days, she's more into her pets (a total of nine cats, dogs and ferrets) and getting her hands dirty in paint and ink.
"I'm like a black and white cookie," she said. "I think it all balances out really well."
Last year, Price played left and right tackle for the Tampa Tempest, a women's professional football team. The league, the Independent Women's Football League, follows the same rules as the NFL but uses a smaller ball.
Although she's sidelined indefinitely with injuries, Price has the memory of getting to play one game in the Orange Bowl in Miami. She said the whole experience with the team was a rush.
"There is nothing better than getting to the quarterback when she least expects it," she said.
As she continues recuperating from the car accident, which yanked her shoulders and pelvis in opposite directions, Price stays as active as she can.
A series of paintings of animals is taking shape on her dining room table. Soon she hopes to go back to teaching belly dancing and martial arts at the YMCA.
If there's any pattern to her life so far, it's a random one. She has learned that a straight, pre-determined path just isn't the artist's way.
"I was so into getting things perfect," she said. "Life isn't perfect, so why should art be perfect?"
