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Disease Spurs Man's Artistic Side

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS

Shawn Woods works on a new painting in his Palm Harbor home. Woods, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, paints when his condition does not allow him to sleep.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: August 30, 2008

Shawn Woods has already made lemonade out of the lemon he was tossed when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

A year after taking up drawing using his 5-year-old son's crayons for his first work, Woods won the best in show at the juried Old Palm Harbor Main Street art show, June 27.

Woods has also begun to connect with his grandfather, William "Bill" Cumming, one of the famed painters of the Northwest School.

The art movement drew its inspiration from both the Puget Sound area and Asia. Today, one of Cumming's paintings can sell for as much as $60,000, Woods said.

A business and marketing major in college, and now senior vice president at the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network, the 44-year-old Woods had no interest in art until he developed Parkinson's. The man who liked to ride motorcycles and to make furniture for the sheer challenge of it had previously been too active for art. On a trip to Europe, he quickly became bored studying the paintings of the masters, he recalled, even though he appreciated the great art.

His art developed as a result of the Parkinson's medication. It can make the Palm Harbor resident go for as much as 40 hours without sleeping.

It was during one of those sleepless periods a year ago that Woods took up his son Cameron's crayons and drew his first piece, one featuring Cameron and two other children. "It was something I did in the middle of the night," he explained. "It was kind of fun."

Besides, that was about the only activity left to him to fill his sleepless nights. "I had researched the family history and done everything else," he smiled.

That first work had the round bodies and bold colors that characterize both his and Cumming's work. In Cumming's case, his people are faceless because he lets other elements speak for the characters. In Woods' work, his characters are faceless because his hands shake from Parkinson's and he can't draw details.

At times, his right hand trembles so much he is unable to paint with it and must resort to his left hand. He has discovered larger paintings demand less exactitude than do the small ones. He must also change positions frequently because his disease makes it difficult to stand for long periods.

The man who eschews anything but basic black and white in work clothes can't explain his fascination with the rich colors of his paintings. In fact, he can't explain his technique at all. "When asked, 'Why did you do that?' I have no idea," he said.

On a recent trip to Washington, Woods brought some of his work to show his 91-year-old grandfather. Cumming studied the art, nodded, and said he enjoyed it.

Although he has now had about 40 visits with his grandfather, they never met until Woods was in college at Washington State University, in Pullman, Wash. His mother was born from one of the seven marriages of Cumming, who has jokingly called himself the "Willie Nelson of Northwest Painting."

In Cumming fashion, Woods' mom managed to stand out in her own way. She was the first female deputy sheriff in the state of Washington, Woods said.

His relationship with Cumming appears to reach deep levels. Woods eyes filled with tears while describing his listening to Cumming tell an intimate story about his own father while painting. Cumming could at once be absorbed in both his personal story and his painting.

At that moment, he felt very close to his grandfather and awed by him, Woods wrote in an e-mail. Even though engrossed in his personal story, Cumming knew every detail of the painting even before he had put it on canvas.

For his grandson, the vision of himself as an artist changed during his grandfather's story. He had decided, Woods wrote, "that I wanted to get to a point where I could put together a painting in my mind, and be able to actually paint it, like my grandfather is able to do."

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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