When Debbie Wagner awoke to find she could no longer cherish her beloved novels or concoct complicated and delicious dishes following surgeries to remove two pear-sized brain tumors, she discovered a hobby that celebrates her own joy at waking to a new day and has come to memorialize the days of so many others with her work.
Almost every morning, she retires to a darkened room to paint the sunrise and even takes her paints on vacation.
“When I look at a sunrise, it represents a new beginning. I’m just so happy to be here another day and see my kids do different things and go to dinner with my husband. I suppose that’s the addiction of it — it puts me in a state of mind focused on gratitude.”
Word of her work spread following an exhibition in Salina, Kansas, and her unique paintings have been sought by those wishing to mark monumental events, from births to the last day of a loved one’s life.
“I’m not a great painter. I’m not trying to ask for a compliment or anything — I’m just telling you the truth,” Wagner said. “I think people are drawn to the honesty of what I’m doing, and the pureness of it. It’s not calculated and it’s not planned, and it was never meant to be commercial. It’s my journal and it’s very personal.”
