Verle Mickish - honoring lifetime work in the arts.

One of my personal favorites - done recently when the artist was forced to "reinvent himself"

This past Sunday I attended an artist's reception for Verle Mickish at the Sautee-Nacoochee Center Galleries.  Verle is a featured artist for the first show of 2015. I'd seen the exhibit the day before as it was my regular volunteer day - and the best part of being there the day before was meeting Verle and his charming wife of 69 years, Ginny.  They came by to see how the show had been hung and to take a few photographs.  I was able to spend a hour chatting about life, art, and being an aging artist who is losing his sight.  Sadly Verle has lost most of his vision to macular degeneration.  But as you will see, he's still painting!  And his humor and zest for life remain intact.


The first ones are earlier works (I think) and I'll follow up with what he's been doing recently.

An early oil.

A delicate winter landscape

Selected works

This was done about 10 years ago.

one of his magazine covers

Another illustration for a wildlife publication

A fabulous abstract

Verle Mickish with a recent painting.

The show flyer

Verle and Ginny

Another recent painting - completed after Verle lost most of his vision.

Ginny and Verle are obviously devoted to one another.  They are vibrant and funny and a joy to hand out with.  Ginny and I are now FB friends so I'll sharing this post to her and all of their friends. 

I'd never heard of Verle Mickish - and it's likely you haven't either, but there are literally thousand and thousands of incredible artists out there who just keep making great art so whenever there's an opportunity to see works from 50+ years as a painter, illustrator and educator, I don't think one should pass! Over 90 works are exhibited.

Another quick post - kinda nostalgic...

A self-portrait of sorts, done about thirty five years ago when I actually looked like that.

An ironic note: at that time, I lived in a loft in Philadelphia and the sheep images were taken from visits to the petting zoo adjacent to the Zoological Gardens. Many years later, I raised sheep of my own on my very rural 43 acres.



Whaddya think? Any resemblance?

And below - that's me in my then-studio with Fred, my white Shepard. In the background is some of the fiber/fabric art I was doing back in the 1970's and 1980's.

What always strikes me about this photo is how frail and waif-like I appear. Even my hands look small. Now, after years of building things, mending fences and handling livestock, my hands are strong.

In the 1980's, my right hand had to be "rebuilt" with bone grafts after a benign tumor destroyed the bones in my index and middle fingers. The surgery was performed by a "hand specialist" from Buffalo, NY. Who'd have thought there were hand specialists? He did a great job, and within a year, I had full use of the hand again.

I guess I'll tell the rest of that story quickly. I had a terrible horseback riding accident in 1986. Even though I was wearing a helmet, I suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs, and severe contusions to my hands, as I was apparently dragged through some gravel on a blacktop road. (I don't remember.) Small stones and grit had to be removed from the backs of my hands. and arms.

About three years later, when I was all healed up and playing tennis, I began to have terrible pain in my right elbow. My doctor diagnosed tendinitis and I was treated accordingly. Months went by and the pain remained, until one night I dreamed that I had to have my right arm amputated due to bone cancer. Now I am about as right-handed as a person could be. I panicked; called the doctor and went for a bone scan. That's when the tumor in my hand was found. It had been pressing on nerves causing the "tendinitis." Within a few days or weeks, the bones would have been beyond repair as they'd have separated completely.

The dream thing? Runs in my family. It's one of those unexplainable things that is what it is

Sweet dreams, all. I'll be retiring at 10 pm to be up at 6!!