Helping others heal through art

By YOVANNA BIEBERICH

ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Coming up against a life-threatening disease has a way of changing one's perspective. For Petaluma artist Ginger Irwin, facing and surviving breast cancer awakened a life-long love and a desire to use it to help and bring healing to others.

"When you're diagnosed with cancer, things that once seemed very important are just forgotten," said Irwin, author of a series of children's books, "Pet Animal Angels."

"I made a pact with the powers that be that if I could get through this cancer, I would try to help others with these little books that have animals who have left this world and now have wings," she said.

Irwin's book features watercolor paintings of the pets of family and friends, along with poems and prose written by Irwin's daughters to accompany each painting. The purpose of the book is to provide some comfort to sick or frightened children, or even adults, going through difficult life circumstances, such as the death of a beloved pet.

"It was just a dream that came into being a reality. The dream came to me when I was in treatment for the cancer, and it just evolved into four books. My books haven't served me very well commercially, but I did love doing the paintings. I think that when a passion becomes a career, it's just the most rewarding possibility imaginable," she said.

Originally from Wisconsin, Irwin left "the snow and cold" for Petaluma about 45 years ago. She enjoys early morning swims at the Petaluma Swim Center on Washington Street and strolling through downtown, but she admits her favorite hangout is home, where she can work on her art.

Irwin became interested in art as a child. She remembers painting her first picture at around age 8 or 9.

"It was a little water tempera painting of a tree blowing in the wind, with dark storm clouds," said Irwin. "My mom hung it up, so I felt it must have been special. I hang lots of our grandchildren's art. Actually, it's all over the place. I've never been to any art school. I just have some natural talent."

Since the release of the "Pet Animal Angels" series, Irwin has also been working on an environmental book, "Angels in Weather."

"I've been very concerned about global warming, so I painted 12 historically important figures with wings," said Irwin.

Her most recent work has been on a 2011 calendar for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds store, on the corner of Washington Street and Petaluma Boulevard. The calendar is available for sale at the store.

"I was driving my Honda Civic past the Seed Bank when it first arrived in Petaluma," said Irwin. "I had some rather odd pastels of vegetables and thought they might want to hang them for a while. They did. The owner, Jere Gettle, then asked if I could paint the orange-fleshed tomatoes from their catalog. That's how it started. I'm working on various other projects, too."

One of the projects is creating "Harriet and Henry," two whimsical, hand-painted, standing wooden signs for Baker Creek.

Irwin finds her inspiration from deep within, drawing from her emotion and what's going on around her.

"I think I have a fierce quality of emotion in what I do," she said. "I like to paint from dreams I have, but also from everyday happenings. I have painted &‘Kosovo,' &‘Katrina' and &‘Brothers in War,' which are large oils I did when I became emotionally involved with what was going on in our world."

She also enjoys sharing her passion for art with kids, and has taught several art classes over the years at Mary Collins at Cherry Valley Charter School.

"With our schools dropping most of the art programs, the children become so delighted and serious about any direction for art they can get," said Irwin. "It's such a shame that more artists don't donate some special time to teach art. I've learned more from the children than I could ever put into words just by teaching them once in a while."

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@arguscourier.com)