A Paducah artist was surprised when one of her neighbors built a device that helped her continue doing art after she was injured.
Char Downs, Quilt City USA Murals lead artist, was working on a mural repainting of quilts for Paducah’s flood wall at her studio in Pinecone Gallery, when she fell off a ladder. The fall, which happened in October, required her to use a wheelchair, which made it harder for her to paint her murals since they were too tall.
“I would get on a step ladder and step up on the platform to paint the upper areas, and that’s how I did the first one I did,” Downs explained. “But what happened is, earlier this year, I had hip replacement surgery, and I thought, by then, I thought it had healed enough so that I could lift myself onto the platform from the step. I ended up on the cement floor with a broken hip, a broken arm and shoulder.”
Her husband, Jay Downs, came up with an idea to help her start painting again. Richard Glasscock, a longtime neighbor and friend of the Downses, loved working with wood and was excited when Jay came to him with an idea.
“Jay came to me with a very vague and tenuous idea, which was fantastic,” Glasscock said. “Can we make an easel that can support this thing and make it safe? That was our primary concern. And I said, ‘Sure. What do we need?’ And then I learned it needed to be 9 feet wide, and I did some basic design as to what I thought I needed to do. And came down, showed the design and talked about it to Char, and showed her some very basic drawings.”
The easel was designed so that Char could reach all of the parts of the mural without having to reach too far or stand up. The device was also light and on wheels, allowing it to move more easily in the small studio that Char worked in.
“She has 9 feet by 24 inches of uninterrupted flat easel, so she’s not going to paint something and catch a bump that throws off the paintbrush,” Glasscock highlighted. “I wanted to make it as flexible for her as possible, so it’s adjustable in four different settings. We can raise and lower the entire unit. The back legs are adjustable, so we can make it steep, and we can lay it all the way down to where it’s flat, like a table, so whatever she’s doing, she can get it in the position that works best for her.”
Glasscock said he had a good time designing it and was excited to help his friend get back to her passion.
“Char is special to us, and to be able to help her, literally get her back on her feet,” Glasscock said. “This is going to help her continue her career, continue doing her passion, and so that’s really important to us.”
While the device is built and is in the studio, unfortunately, Char’s hand has not yet recovered from the fall, and she will be unable to paint for another month.
“In about a month, I’ll be able to get back because of this,” Char said. “I’m hoping to be able to use this hand, because right now I can paint, but I’d have to have somebody next to me to open and close paints and mix them for me, because I can’t do that one-handed. But now I can wheel myself out when I’m ready, and I can start painting again.”
While Glasscock is proud of the device, he is not sure would be able to work on any more of these types any time soon due to his own shoulders.
The mural being painted on the easel is part of a larger program called Quilt City USA Murals to paint murals of different significant quilts and place them on the flood wall in downtown Paducah. The program is ongoing and has six different artists working on it in Paducah.