The Business Journal salutes seven octogenarians and one nonagenarian for whom age is just a number.

JUNE WAYNE, 91

Artist – June Wayne Studios

June Wayne isn’t planning on shutting down her studio anytime soon.

“Retired? What does that mean?” said Wayne, who oversees a staff of about six people at her studio off Tamarind Avenue in Hollywood. “You mean, why haven’t I died?”

It seems counterintuitive to stop work after she has mastered it, she explained.

“I’m better equipped to practice my profession than I was when I was young because I know a lot, I’ve done a lot and I’ve learned a lot,” Wayne said in an interview at her bright, airy workspace called June Wayne Studios. “Why would I toss all that away?”

Wayne’s work includes tapestries, paintings and collages, although her specialty is lithography. Her base of clients comprises individuals, museums and institutions.

A Chicago native who came to Los Angeles after World War II, she started painting in high school, but dropped out and didn’t attend college. Nevertheless, she holds multiple honorary doctorates and has taught at top schools, most recently at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

A widow – her husband died in 2003 – Wayne lives in a loft above her studio. She keeps all the magazines and books that reference her work; there is enough material to fill a bookshelf that stretches the length of her studio wall.

Wayne still works the same hours she did when she was in her 30s, though she does need an assistant to help her move heavy objects and meet tight deadlines. She attributes her vitality to a simple formula:

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs,” she said. “I don’t exercise either, but I’m busy all the time so I don’t need to.”

She dismisses the notion that she needs to keep up with the latest industry trends.

“I make the trends. I don’t try to keep up with them,” she said. “If a trend is out there already, why would I be interested in it? If I never get another idea, it would take me 500 years to get through all the ideas I have now.

“I’m going to run out of time no matter what,” she added.

As for her goals, Wayne has two: She would like to continue experimenting with her ideas for artistic works. But above all: “I would like to live those 500 years I mentioned.”