Kait Paints For Cancer Research

Read About Kait's James Conner Painting and Getting to Meet Him Herself

Kait with James Conner and her painting of James

This May I was asked for the second year in a row if I would create a painting of James Conner to go to auction  to raise money for Dr. Stanley Marks Cancer  research  department in the Hillman Center. Dr. Marks is well known in Pittsburgh as one of the greatest and go to doctors if you're diagnosed with cancer. When James Conner was playing football for Pitt University, at the age of 19 James was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. When I was with James I asked what symptoms he had and he said he almost thought he had a cold and obviously being an athlete and being so young, cancer is the last thing that comes to your mind. Fortunately James was treated by Dr. Marks and has been in remission for 2 years now. Since then James has been an inspiration to people and athletes everywhere especially to Pittsburgh where he was soon drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers where he currently plays.

The original painting is done in acrylic on canvas in a 3ftx4ft size and then smeared with yellow acrylic paint. I went with this theme because my painting of Antonio Brown was a huge hit and also I only had so much to make the painting. Any time I'm in a time crunch I leave my oils behind and go for acrylics. I anticipated getting the painting done in a week MAYBE two. Ha, yeah no. There was so much more detail that I didn't take into consideration which drew the painting process out for about a month. Luckily I did get it done in time for the auction but first I was asked to meet with James first so he could autograph the painting. Last year's painting of James sold for $6000 so we had high hopes for this painting, but it completely succeeded my expectations with being sold at a whopping $11,500!! I couldn't be more grateful or excited to help raise money for Dr. Marks and the Cancer Research at the Hillman Center.

" James Conner" Acrylic on Canvas 3ftx4ft