Sukhum’s paintings evoke inner, outer worlds

by Dennis Dalman

news@thenewsleaders.com

Pamela Sukhum, a 1989 Sartell High School graduate, made a stunning career change in 2003 when she fell so in love with painting she dropped her job as a researcher in cardiovascular health and electrophysiology at the University of Minnesota.

Her dazzling paintings have been exhibited worldwide. Fifty-nine of them are now being shown at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Reedy Gallery in Chaska. The show, dubbed “Hymns to Nature,” opened Sept. 8 and will run through Nov. 7. On Oct. 7, she will give a talk in the arboretum’s auditorium. It is Sukhum’s first Minnesota show in seven years.

“I’m so excited to share my work with people in my home state of Minnesota,” she said during an interview with the Newsleader. “This show is like a homecoming for me.”

Sukhum’s paintings, inspired by nature, are radiant bursts of color and movement that shimmer and pulse with glowing colors and a flurry of textures. Many glow with luminous light, like stained-glass windows. Some verge on abstractions and even resemble cosmic telescopic views of objects in outer space, but all are grounded in the earthly world of nature – fields, grasses, green plants, flowers.

Sukhum has said her paintings are informed by experiences gained from her journeys around the world – from the monasteries of Tibet to refugee camps in Africa.

When Sukhum embarked on full-time painting almost 20 years ago it was a daring leap. Though she had barely enough money for a month of rent, she moved into a downtown Minneapolis studio space to absorb herself utterly in her newfound passion – painting. In the studio she began to paint, paint and paint some more. Though she had to eke out a living, she eventually scored grand successes and critical acclaim.

Sukhum, a Sartell “part-timer,” also has art studios in Minneapolis; Crestone, Colo.; and Bangkok, Thailand, the country of her parents. Her family moved to Sartell in 1985 but her father and mother later moved back to Thailand. Her father is a cardiologist, her mother an expert in the world of finance.

Sukhum lives in Sartell part of every year with her husband, Ben, who helps run her painting business. They live in the Pine Point neighborhood of north Sartell where there are quite a few fellow artists that Sukhum so admires, like painter Judith Bergerson and potter Peder Hegland.

Sukhum’s paintings are part of the collections of many art galleries in North America, Canada and elsewhere in the world. She has won many awards and garnered many honors, including the Director’s Choice Award at Art Expo New York. Sukhum and her paintings were the subject of an Emmy-nominated film produced by the Public Broadcasting System.

Her works are also in the corporate collections of companies such as Medtronic, Ernst & Young, Novartis, and Deloitte and Clifford Chance Worldwide, based in Dubai in the Mid-East.

Sukhum is a strong believer in sharing art in person with others, to help them see the visionary beauties and possibilities of inner and outer worlds. One way she performs her sharing is her live “painting performances,” including one to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Governor’s Mansion in St. Paul.

In 2006, Sukhum began a non-profit organization called “The Beautiful Project.” It’s a way for her to share her passion for art with others, and a way to help people use art as a healing and self-empowering force in their lives. “The Project” has worked with people in eight countries, including children in refugee camps in Africa and in more than 20 American cities.

Sukhum’s mission statement is this: “As an artist, it is my wish to celebrate our inner and outer worlds and our shared humanity.”

For more about Sukhum’s exhibit and Oct. 7 presentation at the Arboretum’s Reedy Gallery, visit arb.umn.edu/art-galleries/reedy-gallery.

To see more Sukhum paintings and to watch her paint, visit her website at www.ArtofPamela.com