God's garden

WATERLOO --- Full-throated lilies in ripe shades of raspberry and strawberry pink.

Columbine spurs drenched in dew drops. Flame-colored Rembrandt tulips with petals spread but not yet spent. Sun-kissed calla lilies, sunflowers, frilly cosmos and pastel roses in bud or unfurled ... .

On the first day of spring, Ginger Penaluna's garden is in full bloom at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Her collection of 39 works, "Reflections on God's Garden" is a breath of vibrant life at a time of year when beds and borders are just awakening from winter's slumber. One can almost smell the fragrance of earth and blossoms in the Forsberg Riverside Galleries, a sensation heightened by a scattering of fresh floral arrangements and ironwork garden furniture.

Reminiscent of Georgia O'Keeffe's intensive floral studies, Penaluna's artwork is a happy marriage between digital photography, digital art and painting. She believes her techniques are so unique that she's invented a name for it --- "Penalunatage," she says, laughing.

The images also are spiritual in nature, celebrating what she describes as "little God moments."

"If you truly look at a flower, you can see all the wonders of the world. There is so much order and beauty we live with everyday and we don't always notice it or pay attention. I'll be photographing a flower, looking deep inside it with my camera lens, saying 'Oh, my God, it's awesome.' God is a fabulous artist. I feel like I'm plagiarizing him because I'm copying what he has created. Even if he'd created only a few flowers, it would still be infinite," enthuses the Cedar Falls artist and former Waterloo Community Schools art teacher.

She smiles. "And I'll stand up for weeds because there is beauty to be found in those, too," noting her dandelion canvases.

In her wildest dreams, Penaluna never imagined her artwork hanging on walls of a gallery she once shepherded children through on school field trips. She has other reasons to celebrate her newfound success, too.

Ten years ago, heart problems left her nearly bedridden and swallowing 22 prescription drugs daily. Eventually diagnosed as a viral infection of the heart, Penaluna found herself in an emergency room with an irregular heartbeat. "When you're on a gurney buck-naked and hooked up to all kinds of machines, signing permission slips for emergency open heart surgery and someone puts a nitroglycerin pill under your tongue, you suddenly start examining your life.

"I remember thinking, 'I don't want to be the star of this show.' I love my husband and my kids and they love me. I was pretty happy with my life and what I'd done and I thought, 'Well, if I die it will only hurt for a moment and I'll be done. I can accept that. But if I survive, I will treat every day as a gift.' I think I have done that --- and I hope it never changes," she explains.

She credits her husband, Tom, with opening "a whole new world for me" with his gift of a digital camera and macro lens. He suggested she go out into the garden, take some photos and paint watercolors from the images while propped up in bed. Penaluna stayed for two hours that first day and as she found inspiration, her zest for living was renewed.

"If you're lucky enough to find what you love to do, whether it's a hobby or a living, you'll always be happy," the artist says.

After photographing flowers, she downloads images into her computer and works on them with her mouse --- "a digital paintbrush." Her image files are then printed on canvas and she selectively adds hand-applied acrylic paint to the surface. Penaluna manipulates original digital images in her computer, but doesn't alter the colors or natural forms of her subjects. Canvases range in size to more than 5 feet.

Penaluna also conceals devotional texts within her images. "That's a secret I haven't shared before because I think the messages should be personal. It's there and it may take a long time to find it in each canvas, and whether or not someone who owns one does, they have is a blessing in their house."

Her paintings are selling. Many canvases throughout the exhibition sport small red dots proclaiming "Sold!"

A strong supporter of community arts education, Penaluna has arranged to donate sale proceeds to the Waterloo Center for the Arts' Youth Pavilion project.

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