6 • ISSUE May 2012
Amazing Grace
Volume 18, No. 8
PATRICIA CARGILL: AUGUST 15, 1929-MARCH 4, 2012 PATRICIA CARGILL WAS A person like no other. She devoted her life to truth and beauty. Living for a decade with lifethreatening illness, she exemplified amazing grace. (Taken from the memorial service program.) Patricia Chickowsky Cargill was an artist who taught us how to live a life of beauty, truth and goodness. As one entered the iron gates of her home, the rustic, natural beauty was a menagerie of patterns and abstractions. Not only did she teach us about art, but more importantly, she taught us about character and nobility. She lived and witnessed her faith in her everyday activities. She would greet me with “God is good!” Her faith reached beyond art. Patty grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents were from Windsor, Ontario. From an early age, her religion was center in her life. Patty’s interest in art began in elementary school; she later attended Pratt Institute in New York City where she met David Cargill. He remembered clearly the first meeting. They were in class together and the instructor asked all students to stand and introduce themselves. “I spoke in my Southern Texas drawl: My name is David Cargill and I am from Beaumont, Texas.” All the students roared with laughter; all but Patty who came to him at the end of class and offered her kindness. He was immediately smitten. “Our marriage was not your typical marriage; we were married for 62 years,” he said. “We worked together 24 hours a day and seven days a week. We were inseparable. We had a lifetime of art. I can’t imagine life without her.” The community is saddened at the loss of a beautiful, spiritual, compassionate lady. She was a courageous person. Patty is also survived by two daughters: Ida Katherine and Chancel, and five grandchildren. While working on an art project of their life and works, I sat next to her bed and watched her keen eye crop and edit photos. “The perspective is now clear...you can see the light directly influencing this piece of art; the light enters here,” she would say as she pointed her delicate fingers to the spot, and as she angled her thumb and forefinger to show where the photograph should be cropped. She spoke of her friend, renowned photographer Keith Carter. “I remember when he was young he would visit our home...perhaps to enjoy the company and discourse, or simply to visit,” she said. When I asked Carter of his memories, he replied: “I knew Patty Cargill for 58 years and in all that time she remained unfailingly gracious. Her stunning range of drawings and elegant paintings evolving over six decades provide the richest of legacies for an artist; showing us how life lived can be art, and art itself provides life.” Her whole life is a testimony to her faith and to the sincerity of her character. Her paintings are immensely descriptive; she conveys the most delicate nuances about character where her presence is seen in the shadows. Her portraits, figure studies and delicate sketches leave a legacy to all. Her greatest legacy is her kindliness, her honor and her amazing grace. The art community has suffered a great loss.
Story by Mary Gagne
Mary Gagne is director of the Texas Academy of Leadership in the Humanities at Lamar University.
Patty Cargill, left, and Mary Gagne talk during the opening of “He Said/She Said: They Spoke With One Voice,” an exhibition of figurative work by Patty and her husband David at the Dishman Art Museum, June 3, 2011. An untitled painting of a little girl, top, is just one example of Patty’s work.
