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Artist works to relearn his craft
By JAY CRIDLIN BAYSHORE BEAUTIFUL -- Easily overlooked in Lamar Sparkman's cluttered studio is a recent sketch of a human rib cage. The shaky drawing is unremarkable, even crude, compared with the more elaborate and beautiful paintings that line the walls of his home. Yet this may be Sparkman's most ambitious work to date. "I can still see it," he says of the rib cage, miming the elusive brush strokes. In his mind, Sparkman knows how the pencil should move. His hand just won't let it. "I've never been so frustrated in all my life." In October, Sparkman suffered a stroke which left him nearly paralyzed on his left side, a devastating blow to a left-handed artist. Since then, everything he has drawn has turned out like the rib cage: distorted, ill-defined, plain. He was once a celebrated newspaper cartoonist, the man who designed the original Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo. Now, at age 80, he is learning to draw again. Sparkman had already endured plenty of poor health during his 50-plus years as a professional artist. In 1960, he suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm. He lost his left eye in 1987 to a cancerous melanoma. In the mid-'90s, he underwent an extensive back operation, and just last July, he had quadruple-bypass surgery. In every instance, he was drawing again in no time. Only three months after the removal of his eye, he completed a large acrylic and watercolor painting equal in quality to his earlier works. He even sold prints of it. But none of his earlier maladies hit as hard as the stroke. Nothing, he says, has presented him with a challenge like this. It will be a slow and difficult process, but those involved in his recovery say Sparkman is dedicated to someday returning to form. "Typically, we don't see even that kind of motivation in someone younger, and this guy's just gung-ho," says Bob Churchill, a physical therapist at Memorial Hospital's outpatient rehab center. A full recovery would be a tall order. A Tampa native, Sparkman has been an artist since age 5, when he drew sailboats on every slip of paper he could reach. After college at the University of Florida and tours in the Army, Sparkman took a position as a sports cartoonist at the Tampa Times. Ten years later, he joined the Tampa Tribune, where he worked until 1987, when he retired to focus on his paintings. He had long since left a mark on Tampa. In 1975, the late Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse asked Sparkman to design a logo for the NFL's newest team. Within a few months, Sparkman had created "Bucco Bruce," whose orange-and-red visage graced the Bucs' helmets until 1997. After three-quarters of a century as an artist, Sparkman had no plans to retire his palette. He was still going strong. But on Oct. 15, 2001, something went wrong. Sparkman was painting at home when he stumbled and fell against a cabinet. Once he hit the floor, he realized that he couldn't move. He was fully conscious. The phone was five feet away. His wife Gloria had learned to leave him alone in the studio, so 31/2 hours elapsed before she checked on him. She immediately called 911. Doctors told them it was a stroke. "I didn't know they were going to take my talent away from me," Sparkman says. He is still capable of great works, says Jenny King, one of his therapists at Memorial Hospital. "When an artist has a skill or an ability, that spirit still has a way of coming through," she says.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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