“The Master of Johns Brook” PATRICK KIRMER 1929-2018
PHOTO BY MARTHA CORSCADEN
Pat Kirmer portrait by Paul Matthews
P
Patrick Francis Kirmer Obituary
atrick was born to John and Johannah Kirmer in Hollywood, California on May 1, 1929. Pat was one of six children, four boys and two girls. During his early years he worked with his father, John, in the family butcher shop. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean War, and served stateside for three years. After leaving the service, Pat completed his college education at the California College of Arts and Crafts in northern California. He moved to New York, where he received a Scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum to pursue his studies in art. Upon completing his education, he went to work at the Baldwin School in Manhattan. He taught art there for 30 years, and retired in 1988. During his career at the Baldwin School, he worked at the Baldwin School Camp in Keene Valley, New York. This was his introduction to the Adirondacks and his beloved Johns Brook. Upon retiring, Pat and his wife Therese, moved to Keene Valley and eventually purchased a home on Market Street. Johns Brook became Pat’s muse and he devoted the vast majority of his time painting the brook. Pat was very engaged with the community and volunteered at the Keene Valley Fire Department selling raffle tickets for their Annual Field Day. He was very engaged with the Keene Central School and he worked tirelessly on sets for many school plays. He was also known as the “apple man”, because of his yearly custom of passing out apples to trick or treaters on Halloween. Over the past several months, Pat had been living at the Essex Center nursing facility. He took his last “brush stroke” on the evening of May 3rd. Pat and Therese had no children and he was predeceased by two sisters, and two brothers. He is survived by his brother Michael Kirmer and his wife Sandy, who live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pat established an annual Johns Brook Scholarship Fund to support a deserving graduating student from Keene Central School who plans to major in music, art, or theater. Memorial donations may be made to the Adirondack Foundation, PO Box 288, Lake Placid, NY 12916 or visit https://www.adirondackfoundation.org/funds/johns-brook-art-and-music-scholarship-fund. All gifts will be added to the John’s Brook Scholarship Fund. An open house celebration of Pat’s life at the Keene Valley Congregational Church was held at the Van Santvoord room on November 16 where many people came to share stories about Pat. PUBLISHED BY SUNSTORM ARTS PUBLISHING CO., INC. JAMIE ELLIN FORBES, Publisher jamie@fineartmagazine.com POB 404 CENTER MORICHES, NY 11934 VICTOR BENNETT FORBES, Editor victor@fineartmagazine.com POB 481, KEENE VALLEY, NY 12943 • 518.593.6470
Editorial, layoutt & design © 2018 SunStorm Arts Publishing Co., Inc.
Patrick Kirmer at his Keene Arts exhibition, photograph by Pete Plumley
Suzanne Preston, Pat, Corscaden Barn
Lions of Keene Valley in front of the Valley Grocery photograph by Victor Forbes
Pat always reminded me of the “man with the yellow hat” from Curious George. Although his hat was not yellow, the brim was wide and he seemed like he was always up to something fun, if not slightly mischievous. He loved to talk and tell stories…lots of stories. About teaching, painting, putting on plays (especially “West Side Story”), his wife and soul-mate, working in his dad’s butcher shop and deli in Hollywood as a kid. I love the image he made indelible in my mind of a group of actors who all dressed as President Lincoln walking down Hollywood Boulevard together, top hats and all, and then coming into his deli to order lunch. And of course there was his love of the Johns Brook and the world he inhabited there. He never tired of it. It was his muse and he always found inspiration there. It was a great privilege to sit with Pat and sift through all his drawing journals listening to him talk about the forms and the quality of the line. He said he was still working on the perfect curve. When living at the Neighborhood House, Pat would amble up Market Street and sit outside Leepoff Cycle trolling for a conversation and holding court with a smile a mile wide. Pat was universally loved and gave so much to so many. We have his stories and we have his wonderful artwork which is a treasure trove of images. Many are only familiar with a small sample of his work and style, but he was versatile and ambitious with his work. He experimented and worked hard on his craft. I especially love his little comments worked into a corner, under a rock or following the curve of a line — like little riddles or clues about his day, observations and his sense of humor. We all will miss Pat — even the big erratic — his “30 million year old friend” as he called it, by the Johns Brook bridge. — MALCOLM MACDOUGALL, KEENE ARTS
Pat, his niece Johanna Hart and fellow artist Frank Owen at Keene Arts opening reception –Photo by Pete Plumley
At nineteen and a college student switching majors from business administration to fine art, I was employed as a summer boys camp counselor who was also to assist the teacher running the arts and crafts program. I had grown up in a small California farm town that did not have many artists. The camp teacher, Patrick Kirmer, was warm, open and lively. He was also committed to making art. He was the first working artist to tell me about the importance of influences upon his work, particularly the art and example of Paul Cezanne, the notable French Post-Impressionist. Patrick showed me books about Cezanne’s way of thinking and working. He also showed examples of his drawings that were vivid demonstrations of his grasp of the older painter’s concepts and approach. Patrick continued all of his long career to follow this crucial model. This pairing of generations led to Pat’s decades long examination of the flow of water around the rocks in a stream in the Adirondack village he retired to. Like Cezanne’s multiple paintings of Mount Saint Victoire, Kirmer’s drawings and paintings are an inexhaustible river of seeing. — FRANK OWEN
Michael Gaudreau painted this portrait of Pat, with the Baldwin School Camp alums at Corscaden Barn, Victor Forbes, Pat, Frank Owen
PHOTO OF JOHNS BROOK BY PETE PLUMLEY
These are the words we have chosen to describe our dear friend Patrick son husband brother uncle teacher special friend Kind Caring Creative Artistic Engaged Genuine Smart Dramatic Sense of humor Frugal He loved Therese, Sees Candy, ice cream, lobster His Johns Brook & we loved him! Charity and Jim Marlatt stand before Pat Kirmer’s mixed media on canvas, painting from 1979, The Fence Post. Photo by Victor Forbes
Pat Kirmer exhibition at Corscaden Barn, 2016 (photo courtesy Martha Corscaden)
Pat Kirmer, Vry & The Corscaden Art Barn
—MARTHA CORSCADEN
PHOTO BY VICTOR FORBES
I
first met Pat Kirmer through my sister and fellow artist, Vry Roussin. I would say Pat was admired by Vry but he was also her teacher and colleague. I think Pat drew people to him because he was a teacher and because he was a very, very good listener. I did know who Pat was because well, he was just so tall. He was an icon in our town for that, I think, and because he was entirely passionate and dedicated to his work. He was a tall man with a straw hat walking up and down to Johns Brook and drawing almost every day without fail for years and years. I know he encouraged my sister who was also very passionate about her painting. But Pat also inspired her and helped her to become another known “artist” — i.e.: character in the town of Keene Valley. Pat was a beautiful gentle soul and Vry was more a fiery soul. Pat’s listening skills helped bring Vry down to earth. And you would often see the two chatting and smiling with abandon. Together they made a formidable pair in the art world of the Adirondacks. May their joy and energy continue to spread far and wide.
Pat, at his familiar post at the Noonmark Diner selling raffle tickets to benefit the Keene Valley Fire Department as Martha Corscaden stands by.
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
Johanna Hart (Pat’s niece), author Russell Banks
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
Martha Lee Owen at Keene Arts exhibit
...and engaging
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
Pat Kirmer - always engaged....
Pat’s art dealers – Martha Corscarden, Corscarden Art Barn, Keene Valley; Malcolm MacDougall of Keene Arts, Keene
Pat never tired of painting his “30 million year-old friend,” Johns Brook. He painted big and small in a wide variety of styles
Stepping Stones, 2005
After A Rain Johns Brook, 2004
Always on the Move
There’s Pat - heading the arts and crafts department at Baldwin School Camp, and there’s Frank Owen in the Baldwin Staff shirt, 1959
Baldwin School Camp Interbrook Lodge, Keene Valley 1959-1960
A Camp is only as good as its kitchen, at left is Louella Smith, Angela Heald, (chef unknown), Betty Jean Bigelow, Bobby Ashe
Pat - the tall fellow in the middle. Can you recognize any other locals?
Pat holds court at the old Interbrook Lodge, Baldwin School Camp. Sitting oppoiste Pat is Lucile Washbond (Charity Marlatt’s mother who taught Math and English). Special thanks to Frank O-wen for the photos
The Waterfall By Mary Oliver
For all they said, I could not see the waterfall until I came and saw the water falling, its lace legs and its womanly arms sheeting down, while something howled like thunder, over the rocks, all day and all night… unspooling like ribbons made of snow, or god’s white hair. At any distance it fell without a break or seam, and slowly, a simple preponderance... a fall of flowers...and truly it seemed surprised by the unexpected kindness of the air and light-hearted to be flying at last. Gravity is a fact everybody knows about. It is always underfoot, like a summons, gravel-backed and mossy, in every beetles basin... and imagination...
Pat Kirmer portrait, 20” x 12” by Michael Gaudreau, courtesy the artist and Corscaden Barn
that striver that third eye... can do a lot but hardly everything. The white, scrolled wings of the tumbling water I never could have imagined. And maybe there will be, after all,
PETE PLUMLEY PHOTO
Some slack and perfectly balanced blind and rough peace, finally, In the deep and green and utterly motionless pools after all that falling! Many thanks to all who contributed to this special edition of Fine Art Magazine: Pete Plumley, Alana Both, Frank Owen, Martha Corscaden, Malcolm MacDougall, Charity Marlatt, Jim Marlatt, Jodi Samuels, John Hudson, Steve Bowers, Chaz Locasz and my mother Helen Forbes, who sent me to the Baldwin School Camp in 1961. — VBForbes@gmail.com
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