A Healing Art

Pocatellan Linda Wolfe’s Paintings

By Harald Wyndham

On a bright afternoon in a warmer-than-normal March, from the driveway of John and Linda Wolfe’s house on the hillside above Pocatello, I see the sun glinting on the remains of mountain snowbanks which, in wetter years, would still cover the canyons.

Around the house, decorated flowerpots and painted metal sculptures gleam and spin. Inside, Linda and John greet me warmly, as do their dogs, Rosie, Abby, and Buster. My visit to these long-standing friends is not completely social. I have come to discuss a book illustration project with Linda, an artist I have worked with for more than thirty years.

We settle into the comfortable upstairs living space off the kitchen, surrounded on all sides by brilliant paintings. Linda’s most recent work, showing sinuous vines transforming into birds, faces, and flowers in a progression of colors from dark green to vibrant reds and pinks, are accented by yellow and white embroideries that have a life of their own. I like this new direction in her painting, which radiates positive energy.

“It’s part of the healing process,” she tells me, with a smile tempered by the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. “Art has always been my refuge and my paradise.” Over the past decade, as she cared for John while he underwent chemotherapy or he cared for her while doctors searched for the best arthritis treatment, she never stopped drawing in her sketchbook and painting when her health permitted. And the products of those efforts cover the walls and hallways, staircases and alcoves, like testaments to survival.

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Harald Wyndham

About Harald Wyndham

Harald Wyndham is the owner of Blue Scarab Press, which has published more than twenty-four titles by southeast Idaho and regional writers since 1984. The most recent publication is Leslie Ann Leek’s second collection of short stories, Unsettled Territory, November 2012.

One Response to A Healing Art

  1. Pam Patrie - Reply

    at

    Hello Harald
    I am an old friend of Linda’s from art school in Portland Oregon
    I have been searching a bit for her
    I realize this is a great posting from a good while back but if you would help us see each other again with a reach out and address I’d be so grateful
    Sincerely Pam Patrie
    Tapestry studios.http//www.pampatriestudios.com send this to Linda
    Here is my email and phone
    [email protected]
    503-250-1642

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