I received a phone call Thursday from a patron searching for the
name of a woman painter.
The patron saw some abstract paintings in a movie and discovered
the artist’s name by staying for the credits, but now she doesn’t
remember the artist’s name or the title of the film. The film wasn’t
about the artist, the paintings were part of the set design (on the walls in a
room). What she remembers about the artist, when she looked her up at that
time: The artist is very disabled; she lives in California; she is “very
famous” and represented by one dealer; her paintings are abstract and
fabric is applied to the surface of the paintings (so the color is fabric
rather than paint); someone told her about the artist, “If her paintings
were lying in the street and run over by a truck, she wouldn’t care.”
Isn’t that a doozy?!
I did a lot of searching and found the National Arts and
Disability Center artist register online and Katherine Sherwood come closest to
fitting the description (woman, works in mixed media, had a stroke, lives in
California, is famous for her recovery from the stroke), but since I’m
not at all sure that she is the artist, I wanted to ask the collective wisdom
first. If any of you find this description familiar and know who it is she
is talking about, please let me know.
Thanks,
Karen
Karen
Lightner
Head,
Art Department
Free
Library of Philadelphia
1901
Vine St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.686.5403