A coast-to-coast quest to paint, listen, heal

May 28—The heart-shaped pillow in a Facebook photo tipped off Josena Wilhelm that her friend had survived a health scare.

The social media posting mentioned a one-year anniversary.

"Immediately, when I saw the heart pillow, I knew she had open-heart surgery," Wilhelm said of her discovery while scrolling Facebook a few years ago.

Indeed, Wilhelm's friend from Atlanta, Christiane Palpant, had undergone open-heart surgery in 2018 after a rare virus had attacked her heart. Years earlier, Wilhelm — who lives in Riley with her husband, Beecher — was working for a Terre Haute bank when she struck a friendship with Palpant, a traveling banking executive. Terre Haute was a regular stop for Palpant, whose job took her to every state again and again for 27 years.

This month, they reconnected when Palpant came to Terre Haute for a different reason — she's on a long-term journey to paint landscapes in all 50 states, and interview women who've overcome adversities with courage.

The episode in 2018 began with Palpant's sister rushing her to the emergency room, where Christiane collapsed. The surgery followed. Palpant had to pause her busy banking job. To maintain a low heart rate, she spent the two years after the procedure in bed rest. Her parents traveled from Michigan to Atlanta to help care for her for more than two months. Her brother flew in to see her.

"Those family connections are so dear," Palpant said.

She returned to her job, but couldn't stay well while working and had to stop again. That was difficult for Palpant. In her brother-in-law's analogy, she had "a leaky roof." Realizing that meant she's be living a different future, "I started to cry," Palpant said.

She studied her options for a calmer living. All seemed boring to Palpant. Except for one. "I could quit my job and get a Sprinter van and go around the country to paint in all 50 states and interview women with courageous stories," the 52-year-old Michigan native said.

So, she did. Palpant launched that adventure this spring, and earlier this month she revisited Terre Haute on a trek through Indiana — the 12th state she's reached on her tour, thus far. Palpant drove her customized Mercedes Sprinter van — think Amazon delivery vehicle — through Brown County on a Friday morning, did a painting of that scenic area, then motored in Terre Haute to talk with the Wilhelms and Josena's brother, John.

Her tour had begun with a drive along Interstate 75's Michigan-to-Florida course. A trip to Maine and the Northeast would follow Palpant's Indiana stop, then a detour west to the Northern Plains and Northwest states. It will pause this fall — Palpant accepted a teaching job at Georgia State University in Atlanta — and resume during the college's Christmas break. The end result, once Palpant reaches every state, would be to publish a book of her paintings and interviews with women from Alabama to Wyoming.

Palpant got plenty of encouragement on the Terre Haute leg of her cross-country mission. Beecher Wilhelm knows she'll complete the goal.

"There's a lot of people that can talk. And there's people who do. And she's a doer," Beecher Wilhelm said, as he, Josena and John chatted with Palpant around a mini-kitchen table in the back of her van. She nicknamed the vehicle Millicent (Millie for short), a name connected to her art-focused family vacations and outings. The bike she rides daily hangs in the back. Her bed lowers at the push of a button. Millie is essentially an efficiency apartment on wheels, with enough room for painting.

Many of her pieces come as daylight comes and goes. "I am enthralled by sunrises and sunsets," Palpant said.

Diving into artwork wasn't an out-of-left-field decision. Artistry runs in her family. Her mother, Gail Palpant, is a noted pastel artist based in Adrian, Mich. Gail retired as a commercial artist, and last year gave Christiane her venerable easel. Gail nurtured Christiane's interest in art, giving her daughter casual lessons, including visits to museums during vacations and pointing out the details of the paintings they saw. Christiane's great-great-grandfather, Michigan farmer-artist Horatio Shaw, has oil paintings in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Such a family history helped Palpant in the wake of her open-heart surgery. Her doctors insisted she maintain a low heart rate. Palpant needed something to stay active, though.

"So I started painting," she recalled.

Palpant finished 60 paintings in the first year. She posted images of her abstract landscapes, all in oils, on social media. A New York City gallery called, interviewed Palpant by Zoom and signed her. She's done eight exhibitions around the world since then.

She was well prepared for painting landscapes from coast to coast. The other half of her 50-state quest — gathering stories of courage from women — would be an eye-opener. Palpant aims to find women whose personal stories involve "the three Cs," as she put it — courage, compassion and creativity.

Some stories come out slowly during conversations. "Even the most successful women are so shy about telling their story," Palpant said. But, "in the second half-hour, we really get down to the golden nuggets." The women explain "feeling good in their own skin," developing relationships, family and faith.

One woman survived a mass shooting and temporary paralysis. The woman now walks. "She talked about faith, family and the intentional connection to your relationships," Palpant recalled.

Each will be an element of Palpant's book or some other compilation of her journey. "I'm dreaming of what it's going to be like when I wrap all of this up at the end," she said.

Her trek, barely one-quarter complete, "has not gone smoothly at all." Equipment for her van has been tricky to find, thanks to supply chain issues. "It's what Americans are experiencing," she said.

A prime positive aspect is already apparent, though. "I have not had any pain crises since starting this journey," Palpant said smiling as the sun descended in the western sky over Terre Haute.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.