LJWorld.com

Photo by Mike Yoder

Pearl Cooper, a resident at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Home, 4851 Harvard Road, has her portrait drawn by an artist from Van Go Mobile Arts. Van Go participants are painting portraits of residents at the retirement home. Mobile Arts Inc. is an arts-based social service agency that provides year-round after-school and summer job-training programs to high-needs and under-served young adults.

Photo by Mike Yoder

Tillie Dodson, a resident at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Home, 4851 Harvard Road, has her portrait drawn by Kyle Ostrom-Klaus, with Van Go Mobile Arts. Van Go participants are painting portraits of residents at the retirement home.

Tillie Dodson is sitting on her walker, striking her best pose.

Three feet away, Kyle Ostrom-Klaus is studying her every feature — yes, every wrinkle — and sketching her portrait.

Dodson laughs at the question: What’s it like to have her very first portrait done at age 91?

“I’ll tell you after I see it,” she says.

She might be joking. It’s hard to tell.

Dodson lives at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community, 4851 Harvard Road. She’s one of 57 residents getting their portraits done in the next few months by young artists employed by Van Go Mobile Arts.

The students, in Van Go’s Life JAMS program, are 18- to 22-year-olds who are aren’t in school and are considered at-risk — they are low-income, lack a high school diploma, have a disability or have some other barrier to employment. Usually, the group is working on commercial projects, such as painting a van for Cottin’s Hardware or a new mural for Kansas University’s new Multicultural Resource Center.

This would prove to be a new challenge.

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Serendipity brought the two generations together.

Employees at Pioneer Ridge were thinking how great it would be if they could find a group willing to take photos or do artwork of residents. The Van Go artists were looking for a community service project and decided they’d like to work with the elderly.

Paige Blair, who works at the United Way’s Roger Hill Volunteer Center, heard of both wishes and connected the retirement home with the artists.

“I had no idea what to expect when they came,” says Maren Santelli, social worker with Van Go. “Some had never done portraits before.”

Both the residents and the artists are loving the experience.

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So far, the artists have gone to Pioneer Ridge three times, with each of the six artists completing a portrait apiece during the 60 to 90 minutes they’re there. They’re drawing in pencil and oil pastels.

“Every person is different,” says Sarah Garlow, a 22-year-old artist. “Some people are really responsive, and some people don’t even know we’re there. But everybody’s been really sweet.”

From an artistic point of view, Garlow says, the biggest challenge is getting the colors in the face, the facial lines and the hair to look just right.

“Their hair is so fine, and it has lighter colors,” she says.

For many of these residents, this is the only artist portrait they’ll ever sit for in their lives. There’s some pressure to make it look good, says Andrew Padilla, another 22-year-old artist.

But he adds: “With this age group, they’re not going to care if it’s not great. They’re not criticizing our artwork.”

In fact, Garlow says, every one of her models has been appreciative of the final result.

“Most of them don’t know what to expect,” she says. “They’re happy with what they get.”

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And Angelina Sterrett, who helped conceive of the project, says the residents’ families have been happy, too. She’s activities director at Pioneer Ridge.

“The styles are all so very different,” Sterrett says. “All the residents have been pleased.”

Sterrett is encouraging families to pay to frame the portraits, with hopes of exhibiting them around April. For now, many of the residents have the artwork hanging in their rooms.

Jean Kitchen, whose husband, Bill, had his portrait drawn, was pleased with the results.

“I thought they captured a fair likeness,” she says. “They did a good job with his eyes.”

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Tillie Dodson sits down for lunch among her fellow residents.

There’s a dull hum of conversation in the room. She’s glowing about her portrait experience. It was fun, she says.

But she notes: “A lot of older people — and I’m one of them — feel you shouldn’t have your portrait sketched. Maybe when you’re 18, but not now.”

So how did she think her portrait turned out? Well, sometimes the truth hurts a bit.

“It didn’t look like me,” she says with a smile. “It looked like my great-grandmother.”