It was a warm, sunny day when I stopped in at the Arati Artists Gallery in Old Colorado City. The gallery was preparing to celebrate its 30 th anniversary. Standing in front of the paintings, I feasted my eyes on them. While moving from one painting to another, I saw something quite different that caught my eye. Coming up closer, I read the name of the artist: Marilyn Kirkman. A short time later, I got the chance to meet her.

Kirkman had passion and love in her eyes and voice while telling me about painting. She grew up in Wyoming and then worked as a teacher in Europe. While there, she visited many art galleries. She fell in love with the paintings of the English artist, William Turner, and decided to try her hand at painting. She began with landscapes, the same kind of paintings Turner was famous for.

When Kirkman came back to Colorado, she started taking private classes in painting from professional artists. She also took classes in Commercial Art at Pikes Peak Community College. She had her heart set on art and learning the ropes of painting.

"I did art for at least 20 years," Kirkman said. "I worked with watercolor, oil. I tried different things."

Kirkman eventually became a well-known watercolor artist in our city.

What happened next might have stopped someone else from working on their art. Kirkman faced vision loss caused by macular degeneration. The pale colors she had used before in her paintings were hard to see; she couldn't even see to the end of her brush.

"It was a terrible frustration," Kirkman said. "I had to give up what I really liked to do."

So Kirkman started thinking about doing something different, like working with clay, to find a way out of the situation.

"I kept messing around with whatever I had in my art room. I had a piece of silk there," she said. It was from this piece of silk that a new period began in her life. Kirkman created a new, unique technique she called "sculptured silk." At first, pure silk is applied to the board, and then it is shaped to form texture. After that, Kirkman adds bright, vivid colors.

"It is totally by touch. I know the colors, and I used the same dyes over time," Kirkman explained. She has been working on this process for 12 years.

Her work at the Arati Artists Gallery - A Place in the Sun, Elegance, Spectacular Sunflower, A Glorious Morning, and others - all "breathe" with light and optimism.

A small note next to one of her paintings called "Rhapsody in Blue" reads: Beethoven became deaf but continued to compose music. Who knows, maybe this fact helped Kirkman to overcome difficulties and continue painting.

"What would I be doing if I were not doing art? This is my personal passion," Kirkman said. "The art, the process of creating is my inspiration."

Though she is 72 years old, she feels young and optimistic. Talking to her, listening to her unhurried story, looking into her kind and wise eyes, I realized that in front of me was sitting a happy woman.