Bringing an artist’s dream to reality
It had been over 40 years since Pam Kinkade had picked up a paintbrush when her granddaughter Heather Parrish gifted her some paints, brushes and an easel for Christmas last year.
Pam, 82, has lived at the St. Charles Health Campus for about 12 years now. Her longtime companion, Warren Staples, volunteers there every day. The two have been together for 43 years; Warren admits Pam’s pause in painting may have happened because they were out having a lot of fun together.
“I was shocked when I got it,” Pam said about the gift. “I thought, what am I going to do with this?”
But Warren and she set it up, and Pam began painting again.
She usually paints a couple of times a week, a few hours at a time, with images from her mind’s eye. She likes to do so in the quiet, looking through the window of her own life to bring something to life: a piece of scenery, a still life of a vase of flowers, or a pair of birds.
It’s different now. Her early paintings were from magazines, photo books and watching Bob Ross. She has kept many of her paintings but has given many away as gifts. She has no idea how many paintings she’s created, but she is enjoying revisiting her hobby these days. So much so that she has over 40 small paintings on display in her room at St. Charles.
Trilogy Health Services, the owners of St. Charles Health Campus, has a special program for residents called “Live a Dream”. Through Live a Dream, residents can submit a request for something special to them, whether it is a bucket-list dream or a campus dream. Bucket list dreams are larger and involve help from the corporate offices, while campus dreams are those that can be accomplished locally.
Pam’s dream was to show her artwork.
Jasper Arts is not only about providing valuable support for the city’s creative culture but also about providing a framework for inspiring and supporting artists in the community. That’s why the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center’s galleries display hundreds of works by students from all the school corporations each year, host juried art exhibits featuring local artists, and provide space for special displays supporting groups like ALASI or Dubois County Pride.
It’s why, when Kim Aull from St. Charles reached out, they felt like they could support Pam’s dream.
“It is really special for us to be able to provide this platform for others to shine and be seen,” Kyle Rupert, Jasper Arts Director, said.
He explained they are fortunate to be able to partner with artists and groups to host their work and cultural displays.
Pam’s work is on display at the gallery entrance and includes several paintings she completed in the 1970s. Her son saved them, and she only recently worked with a local woodworker to have them framed for her show.
The pieces vary. One is of a blacksmith she painted from a Currier and Ives book, with so much detail she had to use a single-bristle brush to paint it. Another is of a mill, and the Bob Ross painting features a small shack in a picturesque forest with mountains in the background. Her favorite piece in the display features a pair of cardinals that she painted from a rendition of John James Audubon’s book, “The Birds of America.”
One of her more recent pieces is also on display. A vase with some flowers. Pam said she really enjoyed creating the shadowing on the vase that adds depth to the image.
Seeing her life’s work on display, Pam simply said it was “amazing” with a beaming smile.
