ELLERBE — For two years, longtime Ellerbe artist Gail Benson battled Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia, or COP, a rare form of pneumonia that left her homebound for long stretches and dependent on oxygen.
Rather than let the illness define her, Benson turned to what she knew best — art.
Her exhibit, COPE, showcased that journey through 20 paintings, sketch journals and crafts inspired by the view from her front window and the emotions she experienced while recovering.
“It all started when I was in my studio and I had a lot of extra canvases left over, and I thought ‘what can I do with these? I’ve done everything with my artwork throughout my life,’” Benson said.
“Sign painting, commission work. I worked in a museum, did dioramas, but I never had an exhibit. All those years, never had an exhibit. I thought, well, you know what? I’ve got a story to tell because I had been sick for two years with a rare type of pneumonia,” said Benson. “It kind of put me at home on a lot of medications. I was having my ups and downs, I was on oxygen for a long time. And so this, I put that in my painting. It gave me a way to cope. It kept my mind off of my problems and it helped me cope with this disease for two years.”
Confined to her home during that time, Benson found inspiration just outside her front window.
“I painted what I saw out my front window because I spent a lot of time on my sofa, looking out in my front window. I noticed things were changing out there, and the seasons would change, and so I just started painting.”
While COPE is Benson’s first art exhibit, she has spent decades leaving her artistic mark throughout Richmond County.
“I’ve worked as an artist pretty much my whole life,” said Benson.
Benson worked at the Rankin Museum for 30 years, where she created the museum’s dioramas and helped set up exhibits. In 2015, she created an exhibit honoring late professional wrestler Andre the Giant. Two years later, she was instrumental in the building of a flume in the museum’s backyard. Over the years, community members also sought her out for commissioned artwork.
“People would call me and say, ‘Gail, will you paint my barn in my backyard?’ I had somebody call me and say, ‘We’ve got a sign. Could you paint my sign?’ So I’ve kind of worked in all different kinds of areas.”
These days, Benson said she’s entering a new era, stepping away from commissioned work so she can focus on creating art for herself.
The new chapter became even brighter in February when doctors told her she was cured of the rare pneumonia.
“I didn’t know it could be cured. That was the first I’d heard. I thought this was gonna be something I would have to deal with,” Benson said. “But now they’re saying that they think I’m cured, so I’m hopefully on the road to recovery.”
Looking back, Benson said creating art during her illness became much more than a hobby.
“The paintings and the crafting I did all that time, it was an outlet to express my emotions, my feelings at the time,” said Benson. “It was a great thing to have— it’s my therapy.”
She hoped visitors found comfort in the artwork just as she did while creating it.
“Everyone seems to be enjoying the show. There’s some paintings that people really resonate with. They’ll come over and say ‘That one—I understand that one,’ kind of been through something too, so it’s nice to see people interacting with the paintings. That’s what I was hoping for,” Benson said.