Wichita artist to paint fallen soldiers' portraits
A fat gray cat lounged on Wichita artist Mary Erickson's lap, batting the laces dangling from the neckline of her blouse.
Her white-and-black terrier, Buddy, sat near his master's gold sandals, blooming with flowers across the instep. Erickson's painting of the dog against a brilliant orange backdrop hung above the stairway leading to her basement studio.
Relaxed in a soft armchair, Erickson, 76, recalled reading an article recently that asked Americans to give back to the efforts of military men and women "according to what you can do."
"And I thought, 'Well, I can paint.' So I came up with this idea," she said.
Erickson, whose granddaughter serves in the Navy, wants to paint portraits of soldiers from the Wichita area who lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan and donate her work to their families.
"Some of these young people have not been that lucky as she has thus far, and I know how I would feel or how my children would feel that lost a child that was serving," Erickson said.
Though her art sells for as much as $700, Erickson said she will donate the materials and time to create the portraits of soldiers using pastels or oil paints. Paintings can take up to 20 hours to complete. Matting and framing will be the responsibility of the family.
She is asking families to provide at least one large photograph of their fallen soldier in uniform. Other recent photographs are welcome, too.
Erickson is well-known in Lindsborg for her portraits of the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers, a group of high school students who perform traditional Swedish folk dances and music.
In 2006, Julia Hudson, director of the group, commissioned a portrait of her then 17-year-old daughter, Lauren, after she was crowned St. Lucia in Lindsborg's annual Lucia Festival. Each December, a senior member of the Swedish Folk Dancers portrays the third-century Christian saint and delivers pastries and coffee to townspeople.
Hudson, who said she paid around $500 for a rendition of her daughter in Lucia's white gown and red sash, said Erickson's portraits capture movement and bold colors in a beautiful impressionistic style.
"They were just delightful," Hudson said of the dancer portraits. "People here just really loved them."
Hudson said it is no surprise Erickson wants to donate her time and talent to render portraits of soldiers.
"She was very generous," Hudson said.
"It sounds like her."
After raising five children and a career as paralegal, Erickson is following in the footsteps of her mother, who was also an artist. Erickson said she studied art at Wichita State University and Mesa State College in Colorado, and overseas with Japanese artists. She has completed workshops by leading artists Doug Dawson, Lorenzo Chavez, Albert Handell, Carole Katchen, Ramon Kelley and Sally Strand.
While living in Lindsborg for four years, she owned Erickson's Art Corner, a gallery showcasing her paintings and the work of other local artists.
At Erickson's Wichita home, where she's lived for the past year with her husband, Alexander, a pastel of a fat white and orange cat hangs on her easel. It's her work in progress while she awaits the first request and photographs from a fallen soldier's family.
"This is brand new,'' she said. "I've painted people and I've painted from photographs, but not soldiers.
"Maybe we could meet. And then if they talk about them a little bit, too, that would help."
This story was originally published April 11, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Wichita artist to paint fallen soldiers' portraits."