Tributaries News Story

This is the news article about the Tributaries exhibit.


An indelible memoryBy Lorraine KeePost-Dispatch07/10/2003

Jim Wells is a father facing his own mortality through a long struggles with cancer. Through his art he is proud to celebrate a crative connection with his daughter, Ashley.(Kevin Manning/P-D)

"The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind." - John Allston, on an invitation to the art show "Tributaries."

J. Reginald "Jim" Wells, 59, is dying from colon cancer. Whatever time he has left, Wells wants to spend a large part of it with his teenage daughter Ashley. On Friday, the show "Tributaries: A Legacy That Will Keep Flowing" at the Mad Art Gallery will celebrate their mutual love of art. The art show features Jim and Ashley Wells' artwork and celebrates their "creative connection" - before long to be broken physically though not spiritually. "It's really nothing to dance around," Jim Wells said recently of his losing battle with cancer. Wells sat back against the L-shaped couch in the living room of the comfortable Chesterfield home he shares with his wife Beverly and their daughter, 15. Around the house, some artwork leaned against walls or furniture waiting to be packed off to the Mad Art Gallery. He'd taken a break midway through an interview to rest for a few minutes, but he was back, gamely fighting off a rapid surge in his body temperature. He pressed a cold compress against his side, where the tumor's ragged edges poked against his skin. Wells' shirt and full beard hide the 40 or so pounds he has lost since being diagnosed with cancer three years go. He has outlasted his original prognosis of only months to live, but he's now exhausted all treatment options. The bad periods outnumber the good ones these days. Wells is usually robust of mind, thought and spirit, but his body is angular, thin and frail. "Last year, at Christmas, I didn't know if it would be my last Christmas," he said. A patient in BJC's Hospice program, Jim Wells is living out the rest of his life with as much dignity as he can. Friday's show will help accomplish that. A volunteer in the hospice program helped arrange it. The show will be a personal milestone for Wells. He earned a good living in sales for the Joseph C. Sansone Co., but he loved expressing himself through art. He's never had a show. But that's not why Wells is doing it. "Can you imagine what it will mean to Ashley when she's older?" said Wells, a lifelong artist. "Can you think how powerful this will be?" Conflicting emotions The bonds uniting father, mother and daughter run deep. They'd been established 15 years ago at Ashley's birth. She'd spent two weeks in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit and when she recovered, they dubbed her the "miracle baby." One of her two middle names, "Golden," turned out to be not only a testament to family ties - it's her mother's maiden name - but also a reflection of how preciously her parents' saw her birth. Fifteen years later, the connection is stronger still. It has been a hard and confusing time, said Ashley, who is composed and thoughtful. She remembers when things were different, when her father was well. Jim Wells used to travel a lot when he was working. Often he was gone all week but almost always made it home on the weekends. He'd usually bring her a gift - a stuffed animal - upon his return. She has loved having him around the house more since he's been ill. At the same time, it has been painful for her to see him in so much pain. She is coming to terms with his impending death, but she is conflicted. "It's not wanting him to go away," Ashley said, "but also not wanting him to be in any more pain." Beverly Wells has similarly mixed emotions. She and Jim Wells met in 1979. It wasn't love at first sight but close. Within 2 hours and 45 minutes, Jim Wells said, they were enamored. Sometimes, Beverly said, she cries tears of sadness. Sometimes, she is "angry about the whole situation." Other times, she is grateful that the family has been able "to spend time together and relive memories." "The people at hospice have been really wonderful people," Beverly Wells said. She's excited about the show. Living legacy The show was the brainstorm of freelance writer Elizabeth Vega. Vega is a volunteer with BJC Hospice, a program that attends to the "emotional and spiritual" needs of the terminally ill and their family. "Jim has always wanted to have an art exhibition," Vega said. "Naturally, he thought he'd have time to do it." Vega called a few galleries, including the Mad Art Gallery, a contemporary art gallery located in a former art-deco police station in Soulard. Ron Buechele, an artist and Mad Art Gallery's owner, said he was surprised and moved by Wells' request. A petition, like theirs, doesn't come every day to a gallery. The Wellses got Buechele to thinking. "How would I act if I was in that position?" Buechele said. "What would be important to me? What would I want to leave behind?" He agreed to help, shoehorning their show between engagements at the busy gallery. Artistic ties that bind Altogether "Tributaries" has 29 pieces: Fifteen of them will be his, 14 hers. All of the pieces reflect stages of their lives. There's a piece by Ashley of a bird flying toward a nest containing eggs. She drew it when she was in second grade. There's another piece she drew in pencil of a child's wooden whale toy, a lacrosse racket and an art figure. She graduated to a scratchboard portrait of a dog being called by a little boy and an abstract in blues and lavenders with rays in red, orange and yellow. When Ashley was 3 or so, Jim Wells recalled, she'd be underfoot while he tried to paint. He bought her a set of her own paints. A few years later, the family got a call from a fast-food restaurant owner. She'd won a coloring contest. All the other kids had colored their drawing in pinks and reds and whites because it was Valentine's Day, but not Ashley, who had done her character with green hair, Jim Wells said. For that she earned a gold ribbon and a couple of kid's meals. "I could tell she had some talent, some real talent," the proud father said. Much of his work is done in an abstract expressionist style. Some pieces he did when he was just 16. There is a later portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, a hugging mass of arms and legs. Another lovely portrait shows his wife called "Rose" dolled up in a red hat. There is a portrait of four jazz musicians called "Foreplay Blues" and a piece reflecting New Orleans' night life called "Grapes by Chiquita." Father and daughter like creating collages and giving their work a "tactile" effect. Jim Wells, who won a national art award when he was a teenager, talks of loving the act of creating art, of "wanting to get out of me that which I need to release." Ashley, who will be a sophomore at Parkway Central High School in the fall, is thinking about becoming a doctor someday because she likes helping people. But she also feels deeply about her art "because it gives me something to do. I like creative stuff. It's always something I've been good at." Ashley's looking forward to the show, mostly. She's a bit nervous. "It'll be interesting," she said. "I think it's special that we're having a show together. I will definitely remember it." What: "Tributaries: A Legacy That Will Keep Flowing" When: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday Where: Mad Art Gallery, 2727 South 12th Street in Soulard How much: Free Information: 314-771-8230