A Celebration of Color and Design

Two Women Who Chose Business End up Being Chosen by Art

From August 24 through September 11, the Great Hall at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod will be filled with "A Celebration of Color and Design," evidence that art can change lives and lives can change art.

Patsy Tidwell Painton and Gigi Burboeck both came to art and to Cape Cod indirectly, but they have now immersed themselves in painting, with gorgeous results.

Armed with a college degree in Business Administration and Accounting, Charleston's Patsy Tidwell Painton expected to spend her life crunching numbers. Her love of art soon clamored for attention.

Unable to buy art materials because her town lacked a supplier, she opened a full-service art supply, including framing and art gallery, and recruited accomplished painters to lead workshops for local artists.

It wasn't until she suffered a brain aneurysm, in 2007, that Patsy devoted herself to making art. After several surgeries over two months of hospitalization, Patsy was told that she would be permanently and severely impaired. That was before she gave herself over to the surprising healing powers of Sudoku puzzles. Patsy attributes her full recovery to the puzzles that helped her regain her memory and focus.

Patsy now spends her summers with her husband in Orleans. She has based a new series of paintings on the puzzles that represent recovery to her. "Life is a puzzle," she says. "You're the master to learn your puzzle's meaning."

New Jersey artist Gigi was born in Vienna and, like Patsy, went to school to pursue a career in business. She emigrated with her husband to the U.S. in 1968, devoted herself to her children until 1989, and only then began to paint (at age 48!)

"I felt the passion immediately," she says. Since then she has devoted herself to work that "evokes the vibrant spirit and diverse moods of Nature through a wide range of simple and complex forms and compositions."

Many summers in Eastham have inspired her work. Now that she lives on the Cape for three seasons of each year, Gigi is increasingly involved in the Cape's cultural community and in painting local landscapes.

Already a member of the National Watercolor Society, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York, and other art societies, Gigi has won many awards and exhibited her work widely.

Their joint exhibit, "A Celebration of Color and Design," pays tribute to hidden gifts and unexpected blessings. Patsy and Gigi are very excited to share their art with others who understand that the Cape is one of these blessings. They welcome the public to join them for a reception on Friday, August 26, from 5-7 p.m.

Also showing at the Cultural Center (and sharing the reception that night) are the renowned children's book illustrator Suçie Stevenson (in the Blue Room from August 17-28), Joline Diehl (paintings, in the Blue Room from August 24-September 11), and Heather MacKenzie (paintings, in the Vault from August 24-September 11).

For more information call 508-394-7100 or visit www.cultural-center.org

The Cultural Center
of Cape Cod

307 Old Main Street in
South Yarmouth.
All exhibits and the reception are free and open to the public. 508 394 7100
www.cultural-center.org