The Gage Academy of Art challenged me to change. For seven hours every day in this Seattle art school, I studied classical portrait drawing followed by private tutoring in figure drawing each evening. Then one day there, a stranger gave me a gift of words. After I ran into an elderly Chinese gentleman in the…
It has been an exciting year—kicking off with an exhibition of The Scarlet Cord during the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl in Phoenix Arizona. Film makers from Colorado Springs flew into Phoenix to capture The Scarlet Cord exhibit and the responses of survivors and visitors. For ArtPrize Seven, my work called Hometown Hero invited…
The sound of lots of young voices: “My hero is…” A man wrote the name of the woman that hid his mother during the Holocaust. Hometown Hero visitor: “This is what life is about. Honoring our heroes.” A military man crawled up to the painting on his belly to write the name of his fallen…
It’s been 3 weeks since Hometown Hero looked like this but here is the story behind the picture: While I was installing Hometown Hero in preparation for ArtPrize Seven, a father and his son wanted to participate by writing the names of their heroes on the painting. But, unfortunately, I didn’t have any Sharpie pens.…
WOOD TV studio on location for ArtPrize at the Grand Rapids Art Museum interviews Pamela about Hometown Hero.
After signing the names of their heroes, a few elderly men have stood in front of Hometown Hero, raised their weathered hands, and saluted their fallen comrades. A few tears fall every time I think of this tender imagery.