Local artist Helen Crocker speaks to a crowd at Barnes & Noble Booksellers with one of her paintings as a backdrop during a presentation of her work Thursday night. Photo by Clinton Lewis

Helen Crocker of Franklin has never quite decided what she wants to be when she grows up. But now, after retiring from a 20-year career as a history professor at Western Kentucky University 12 years ago, she may have found her niche as an artist. This is my third career, really, Crocker said. But now, its not something I have to do its something I love doing. After graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in music, Crocker moved to Scottsville with her husband, Ken, and taught music part-time while she raised the couples six sons. In the late 1960s, she discovered a passion for history and did her graduate work in that field, then began teaching at Western in 1970.In 1990, she retired and was able to pursue full-time what had previously only been a hobby painting more and more, she said. My eyes havent always been too good, but theyve been good enough to paint, Crocker said, gesturing to her spectacles. Crocker also has more time now for travel, which she said has always been an integral part of her art. The real trick in art is not the media or the colors, but capturing the character of a place or a person, she said. I actually paint more while Im at home in Kentucky, but Mexico and all the places I have traveled flavor my work. Crocker and her family began making annual pilgrimages to Mexico for Christmas in the 1970s, traveling to escape the cold Kentucky winters. As she continued her work at Western, she received several travel grants to study at various places around the world, including Australia, Europe and much of Central America, she said. Those travels provided much of the inspiration for her works, which were on display Thursday night at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green as part of Westerns Kentucky Live series of lectures. While traveling, Crocker takes endless photographs of the people and things around her, then uses those photos as the basis for much of her work, she said. People, in particular, are her favorite subjects. I try to look beyond the facade of people, to find their mystery, their secrets, she said. Im not trying to reproduce a beautiful scene, but rather to interpret it. Crockers friend and fellow Western professor Peggy Wright said the most remarkable aspect of her work is the expressiveness of her subjects. She gave me a piece a few years ago, a portrait of a Mayan woman putting the finishing touches on a piece of ceramics, Wright said. It meant a lot to me, both because I spent several years in South America studying Mayan ruins and because the piece is so beautiful. When she gave it to me, it just blew my mind. Crocker does two or three gallery shows each year, at least one of which is in a small gallery near Guadalajara, Mexico, where she and her husband have a winter home, she said. For more information about her work, contact Crocker at (270) 622-4509.