Single Father Starts Over

For many people, divorce, job loss, selling a home and starting a business would be overwhelming.

Not for this dad.

By Liz O'Donnell

If the legions of stay-at-home-mothers returning to work are the "EconoMoms" then Mark Campbell is the ultimate EconoDad. Campbell's career path has taken him from high-paying jobs at major consumer packaged-goods companies like Gillette and New Balance, to stay-at-home-dad, to senior designer for a national brand, to laid-off casualty of the recession. Luckily, through all of it, he has held on to his most important job: Survivor.

Campbell opted to be a stay-at-home parent after the birth of his second child. His wife's business was growing and the grind of juggling two kids and two careers was wearing on the family. But eventually he and his wife divorced and earlier this year Campbell headed back to work only to be laid off two months later. "There was no severance, no nothing," says Campbell.

This now-single parent had to sell his house, move into an apartment and cancel his cable, Internet and home phone service. He found a part-time job at a local business but soon lost that, too. The owner of the shop where he clerked wanted him to increase his hours and he wasn't willing to take away from his time with his children, ages 8 and 7. "It was devastating," he says. However, as he often tells people, "when you are at the bottom lying on your back, all you can do is look up."

 "Something just opened up," he says. That something was the desire to teach art to children. It made sense; Campbell had once taught classes in design at Newbury College. "I always wanted to open an art school," says Campbell. "My parents were teachers. I was raised in that teacher mentality." So he combined the three things he loved: art, kids and teaching.

With barely any money to pay his rent, Campbell couldn't invest in his new business. Instead, he gathered his old art supplies from college, borrowed some classroom space from another business in town, hung flyers, and founded Art's Cool Ink this past March.

I recently sat down with Campbell at Coffee Haven, a local coffee shop in Holliston, where he lives. He and his daughter are regulars at the shop –they stop in every Thursday for "tea time" before he drops her off at school. Campbell is at the same time both humble and bursting with passion for his new business. The only time he mentions his financial struggles or his frustrations with the job market are when I probe. He'd much rather discuss his children - who consider him "the cool art guy" - or the art school.

"I am pursuing something I believe in, something I'm good at, and something that will benefit people for the rest of their lives," he explains. "I am bringing something more cerebral to the table. There is so much that little kids aren't being taught. What can I give kids who are missing out on a great experience of art?"

It may seem counterintuitive, but Campbell actually expands his students' creativity by limiting their choices. He spends each week focusing on a single color. He talks about what the color symbolizes, the emotion it invokes, where it can be found in nature, and how it relates to other colors. Then, instead of instructing the class to draw a specific object or use a specific medium, he gives them a variety of materials to choose from, all in the color of the week, and tells them to just create.

Medway resident Erica Berg is a fan of Art's Cool Ink. She sent her two sons, age 6 and 7, to Art's Cool Ink to supplement their home-school curriculum. She especially likes the fact that each child came home from class with very different, very individual projects. "Mark lets them use their imagination and go wild," she says. "He's really good with the kids, very open with them. My boys immediately connected with him."

That connection seems to fuel Campbell. You can sense his enthusiasm and commitment when he talks about connecting with children who are introverts, children with special needs, or budding young artists looking for non-sports activities. "It's amazing to watch (a child's) transformation. You put a canvas in front of them and they just can't help enjoy themselves," he says.

Despite repeat customers like Berg, who just enrolled her boys in a second course, the school isn’t as lucrative as Campbell would like. But he keeps adding new programs, like "Myths and Magic" an introduction to mythology and fantasy, and "Arts In Bloom" where the kids use flowers to make paint. And he's not about to give up.

For many people, divorce, job loss, selling a home and starting a business would be overwhelming. But Campbell seems to handle all of that, and more, with grace. This survivor is going to pursue his dream. "I don't want to go to work in an office every day in obscurity. I want to do something worthwhile."Mine is a riches to rags story," he says. But it is clear the story isn't over. It’s just beginning. "All of this has just accelerated my drive."

Photo by: John Thornton, a CNC staffer. Mark Campbell laughs with his children, Daniel, 8, and Sophia, 7, at his art studio "The Cosmic Sister" in Holliston.