Painting Light in Polio’s Shadow: One Artist’s Struggles
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“Over the past 15 years,” the gallery invitation read, “Sharon Richardson has grown to become one of Brown’s Fine Art’s premier painters. ‘Sharon is one of the jewels of the South – a classy person as well as an enormous talent,’ says Joel Brown, co-owner of Brown’s Fine Art. ‘She has generously given of her talents not only to teach others, but also in giving to charitable functions that raise money through art auctions. She is so strong that when approached about doing this show, even though her arms hurt, her speech difficult and not to mention the fact that she would have to do every painting with her left hand, she accepted the challenge.’” Of course, I did. I had faith in myself that PPS was not going to end my career. I didn’t renege on any of my obligations for commissioned or regular work through the five galleries that represented me then or ask for special treatment. Looking at it one way, I’ve always been disabled by the fact that I only had half the muscle strength I should’ve had, but I didn’t know it. Now that I do, I feel the same as always. It’s fortunate that I enjoy creative problem-solving, because I get many opportunities. § Back in November of 2002, after I’d completed my appointments with Dr. Silver, Jim and I drove up the coast from Boston on a sightseeing excursion. The scenery was charming, and I shot 10 rolls of 36 exposure. Suppressing my desire to buy art supplies and paint on the spot was almost impossible when we wandered into the picturesque harbor of Rockport. That tiny waterfront held a bonanza of subjects. When I close my eyes now, I can see the colorful boats reflected in the water, hear the seagulls’ harsh cries, and smell the ocean on a breeze that perfect fall day with its blue sky, buttermilk clouds, and abundant sunshine. The Universe, once again, had led us to a phenomenal painting spot. I didn’t suspect it then, but that would be the last time I’d travel somewhere and paint my adventures when I returned home, the next best thing to plein air painting. It would be the last time I saw the ocean, the last time I flew. Only after we returned to Natchez did I realize that we’d been to the Rockport where such notables as Emile Gruppe, Frank Benson, Edmund Tarbell and other outstanding artists had painted.
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About the Book
Landscape painter Sharon Richardson survived polio, a viral illness that damages or destroys the nerves essential for moving muscles. With no vaccines available, epidemics occurred unchecked. Also known as infantile paralysis, polio left youngsters crippled and dependent on leg braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and in some cases, iron lungs to breathe for them. Richardson was diagnosed with polio at the age of eight weeks in 1946. In a borrowed car, her parents drove their seriously ill infant, writhing with painful muscle spasms, a hundred miles to Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Enduring and responding to intense physical therapy treatments, she overcame the paralysis in her limbs and was released after two months. By the 1980s and 1990s, Richardson had established an enviable career with work in galleries and collections across the Southeast. Fifty-six years after recovering from paralysis, she succumbed to the muscle weakening effects of post-polio syndrome (PPS) in 2002. Approximately 25 to 40 percent of polio survivors are affected by PPS, and there is no treatment. She lost muscle strength and control in her legs, torso, and arms. This loss limited walking, increased scoliosis, and in her right arm, severely challenged Richardson’s ability to paint. Painting Light in Polio’s Shadow: One Artist’s Struggles reveals how she coped with PPS setbacks and challenges and how these impediments forced her to make radical changes in her private and professional life. She was determined to do everything necessary to continue painting — which included learning to paint with her nondominant left hand.
About the Author
Sharon White Richardson is an award-winning landscape painter whose work hangs in corporate, private, and museum collections throughout the United States and abroad. Her oil and pastel paintings have appeared in or on the cover of Country Roads, Mississippi, and The Southern Quarterly Magazine, and in The Natchez Story, a movie shown at the visitor’s center in Natchez, Mississippi.