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Art class allows her to escape
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT, Times Staff Writer SPRING HILL -- When she puts brush to canvas, Dot Maxwell doesn't have to think about the bad things. She can put aside thoughts of the car crash five years ago that left her comatose for a month and now forces her to use a wheelchair most of the time. Since the accident, Maxwell, 75, of Spring Hill, has started painting under the tutelage of Carol Pelno-Rockwell. Twice each week, Maxwell goes to class and creates visions from her mind's eye. "When you're here, you're in your own mind and all on your own," Maxwell said at one of her recent classes. "I don't have to worry about anything. It takes everything else away." With her motorized chair pulled close to an easel set up in a sunny room at the Oak Hill Hospital's Enrichment Center, she carefully chooses shades of green for her most recent painting -- one of a Doberman pinscher like her dog, Tut. Maxwell began classes with Pelno-Rockwell a year ago, soon after she moved to Spring Hill from New Jersey, where she went through extensive therapy to recover from her injuries. She relearned how to speak and still hopes to walk with a cane one day. Though she had dabbled in painting years before, Maxwell said she had forgotten much of what she once knew. Her first day in class, she was certain she wasn't up to the challenge. "When people first come in, they need to build confidence. Dot was no different than anyone else," said Pelno-Rockwell, who has taught painting for more than 30 years. "Nobody here treats her as anything other than another student." As different as she is from most of Pelno-Rockwell's students, Maxwell enjoys painting for the same reasons -- many having nothing to do with artistic expression. "Painting is just a really good outlet for her, and I'm a cheap therapist," said Pelno-Rockwell. "A lot of people come to class with things weighing on their mind, but they have a camaraderie with other students. When they get involved in their own projects, they forget about the problems they have." Though many students work in acrylics and watercolor, Maxwell sticks with oil paints, which dry slowly and are more forgiving, Pelno-Rockwell said. Her brushes are large and have stiff bristles because they are easier on her hands, twisted from rheumatoid arthritis. "Some days I don't feel like coming because my hands hurt -- like today," Maxwell said. "But you can't sit home and say, 'Poor me.' " Maxwell credits much of her recovery to her husband, Henry, whom she married when she was 18, just after he finished serving with the Marine Corps. Before and after each class, Henry tends to her art supplies, sets up and takes down her easel. "He's wonderful," she said. "All the things that I can't remember anymore, he remembers for me." "Her husband is her biggest critic and her biggest cheerleader," said Pelno-Rockwell. "She wouldn't know what to do without him." Henry Maxwell would have it no other way. "It's all part of the package," he said. "It's all worth it."
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From today's Hernando Times Editorial Letters |
