By Kristin Boyd Special Writer
When Kay Jones sits down in her loft, a makeshift art studio, she sees more than thick purple ribbons draped over faux flowers and spools of thread next to scissors, wrapping paper and layers of leftover fabric.
She sees possibility and perseverance.
This is her playroom, where she creates award-winning artwork, despite suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a chronic disorder of the central nervous system that impairs motor skills, slows physical movement and causes body tremors.
“I know I have Parkinson’s, but I don’t think about it. I guess I have an optimistic attitude,” says Ms. Jones, a Plainsboro resident. “I could crawl up and feel sorry for myself, but what fun is that?”
Four of her pieces will be featured in “ArtFirst!,” the international juried art exhibit and sale that showcases works by artists with physical and mental disabilities.
“ArtFirst!,” sponsored by the Auxiliary of University Medical Center at Princeton, opens Saturday with a Patron’s Preview Party from 6 to 9 p.m. and continues through May 9. Proceeds will benefit the hospital’s Maternal Child Health Program.
Gordon Haas and Tony LaSalle, who both own art galleries in Lambertville, juried the show. More than 100 artists, some from as far away as India and Guatemala, were selected for sixth annual exhibit, which will feature 300 selected pieces, including oils, acrylics, sculptures, mixed media, jewelry, ceramics, watercolors and photography.
“We have mouth painters, foot painters, artists with severe depression — the art is amazing, absolutely amazing,” exhibit co-chair Debbie Monigan says. “For art of this quality, the prices are excellent. It’s a beautiful show.”
Ms. Jones learned about “ArtFirst!” a few years ago ýPage=009 Column=001 OK,0000.00þ through her physical therapist. While she was interested in the exhibit, she could not figure out what to write for the application’s biographical section. So, she never entered.
This year, her physical therapist handed her another application and again encouraged her to enter. She did, sending in four pieces, all of which were selected. Three of the pieces are colligraph prints, and the other is a hand-sewn, satin ring- bearer’s pillow.
“I was just thrilled to pieces,” Ms. Jones says, while sitting in the ýPage=009 Column=001 OK,0000.00þ living room of her Cranbury Brook home, where she lives with her husband, Arthur. “They were fun projects.”
Ms. Jones, a mother of five, jokingly describes herself as an accidental artist. “I don’t know,” she recalls one day telling her sister, a professional acrylic artist, who challenged her to create something, anything. “I can’t even draw a straight line.”
Solely to prove her sister wrong, she began working with woodblock printing and later colligraphs, now one of her favorite mediums.
“I never thought I had any talent, but it kind of came natural,” says Ms. Jones, noting that her mother had painted china.
“When the spirit moves me, and I have something handy, I just start working with it. It’s like ‘What can I do next? What can I do with that?’”
Ms. Jones has no artistic process or expectations when creating. She just picks up an item — tissue paper, or maybe glitter — and then adds other elements, moving them around, painting them, rolling them in ink, sometimes ripping them apart or turning them sideways and upside down, until they take begin to take shape.
“I have a huge box of junk, little pieces that I save,” she says. “I’m forever playing with them, just to see what happens.”
How does she know when a piece is completed?
“Maybe when I run out of goodies, I suppose,” she says. “Or maybe I just look at it and know it’s finished.”
On Friday morning, Ms. Jones hung out in her loft, showing off her favorite pieces — all signed “K. Jones,” pictured and kept organized in a stack of photo albums.
She talked about her first painting, black wavy strips below a red oblong shape with a yellow center. The picture hangs at the top of her steps, just outside her loft. “My grandchildren call it bacon and eggs,” she says, laughing.
And she discussed Parkinson’s Disease, with which she was diagnosed in 1989 after feeling a slight tremor in her hand and left leg. “It’s a dog,” she says, leaning against her worktable for support. “It’s a pain in the neck.”
Ms. Jones must use a walker and motorized wheelchair to get around her house. While most of her motor skills are intact, her handwriting can sometimes become illegible, she says, again laughing.
But, she adds, “I have been very, very fortunate because I’m not the typical Parkinson’s patient. I can still get around and do things. I am very lucky. I don’t look at it as a disability. You know, you do what you gotta do.”
Ms. Jones stands, letting out a deep sigh and pressing her hands against the wall to keep her balance. She eyes a package of fancy adhesive letters and white tulle spread out nearby. She smiles. It’s playtime, she says.
“ArtFirst!” will be open to the public from April 6 through May 9. Admission is free. Tickets for the Patron’s Preview Party from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, range from $75 through $300 and can be purchased by calling (609) 497-4211 or visiting www.princetonhcs.org/auxiliary.