Artistic alum empowers healthy living as nutrition coach and author
Linda Garrettson 鈥�68 is a certified nutrition coach, chef, and food writer. In 2012, she created a brand, Good Natured CookingTM, and began coaching, teaching, and writing about plant-based cooking.
One notable client was Andr茅 Leon Talley, the late author and editor-at-large of Vogue
magazine.
鈥淚 cherished the times with Andr茅, sitting in his family room discussing his grandmother鈥檚 southern cooking. He loved my meatloaf and gravy, but collard greens without bacon fat were another issue,鈥� she says.
At Skidmore, Garrettson was an art major during a time of radical change. Fine art courses were not emphasized, but in the late 1960s, that changed. Professors such as Robert Reed, who specialized in painting and printmaking, taught her the art of painting and drawing and the value of problem solving and critical thinking.
In the Advanced Drawing class, taught by Reed, one assignment was to replicate a comic book spread on a 7-foot-by-6-foot piece of butcher paper. Students were instructed to 鈥渄raw鈥� with 3-inch brushes using jars of black, white, and gray paint. They had 48 hours to complete the assignment.
"I wasn鈥檛 happy about pulling my first all-nighter,鈥� she says. 鈥淎t the time, I wondered where all this would take me. I often think about the value of those classes, and I am very grateful.鈥�
Her first job was as a graphic designer for a subsidiary of Esquire magazine in New York City. The next step took her to Manlius, New York, where she served as vice president of marketing and advertising for Linbrook Homes, a company she and her husband owned. She followed that with a design and marketing business of her own.
In the early 2000s, after connecting with a friend who was in remission from cancer, she was inspired to shift her attention to health.
鈥淎ll my friend did was ask me how I felt. I told him, 鈥楴ot that well,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淗is vibrant energy convinced me to make a change. I woke up the next day and stopped eating meat, dairy, and refined sugar. I never looked back.鈥�
Garrettson is currently completing a certificate in sustainability, writing a food column, training for an annual sprint triathlon, and working on her first cookbook in which she promises to 鈥渟pill the beans.鈥�
