The Phoenix

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Rise 12 x 12” Acrylic Debby Kaspari

It is good medicine for the soul to come across stories of artists who have managed to remain creative and even inspired in the face of personal tragedy, misfortune or serious illness. Of course, no one is immune from the vicissitudes of life, but the ability to metamorphose caterpillars into butterflies seems to us to be a remarkable talent. There are some well known examples of this ability: Monet’s painting of his wife Camille on her deathbed, Van Gogh’s paintings of Iris while institutionalized at St. Remy, Edvard Munch’s obsession with his sister’s early death leading to a series of paintings of The Sick Child, or Modigliani’s work, who continued to paint beautiful, light-filled original work despite illness, poverty, alcohol and drug addictions and an indifferent public. We sometimes wonder what kept them going.

We met an artist recently at the National Weather Center Biennale Exhibition in Norman, OK., who …