Sarasota Arts & Culture Magazine - September/October 2007 - (Page 33)

: : Artist Profile to worry about gray hair or wheelchairs, so I always lived life as if it were in fast forward. That habit I picked up as a young woman has created quite a bit of drama, but life is never boring!” The watercolor doodles of the Survivor Girl series are all personal thoughts of Spangler’s on a particular day during the cancer. On a whim, she set them out at a small, North Carolina art show, just to see if she would get a response. Serendipitously, representatives from the ACS were present, and urged Spangler to copyright the cards. “I told them I was just a nurse who had had cancer; that I wasn’t a real artist,” she protested. “ACS people from all over the country heckled me until three years ago, I finally gave in.” No one was more shocked than the artist herself when hospitals began snatching them up, and her inbox was chock full of emails from patients whom she had touched with her encouraging cards. “It is a privilege to uplift others with the SG motto: be brave, have faith and think positive,” she says. Though Survivor Girl is the only character Spangler copyrighted for duplication and sale, she thrives on pro bono work. For instance, an original cartoon was auctioned off for $100 to benefit the Wellness Center. The gentleman who purchased it commissioned Spangler to do a logo for his firm, The Kilted Cook. Many of her creations are used in fundraising efforts for the All Children’s Hospital, Force (an organization for those suffering from hereditary cancers), and the American Cancer Society. A Survivor Girl cartoon strip just went on tour with the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for their Lilly Oncology on Canvas traveling exhibit. “I’m never going to get rich giving my art away, but I’m certainly rich in the joy that it brings me,” Spangler says. Part of the cartoonist’s humble nature is to claim that nothing in her life is very interesting, though good friend and Asolo Stage Manager Marian Wallace claims that she knows no one with as much drama in her life as Spangler. “I’m a cartoon character myself,” Spangler laughs. “I just want to take advantage of today and the talents I have. I have pretty good skills as a nurse, a great love for my family—and I happen to doodle.” It seems that even Pollyanna could learn a thing or two from this one. To see more of Jan Spangler’s work, visit www.survivorgirl.org and www.janspangler.com. Her cards are sold in Rose-Giles Studios at 923 13th Street West, Bradenton, in Village of the Arts and Magnolia Fine Gifts at 324 8th Avenue West, Palmetto. A Woman Completely Off Her Rocker Subject to Change Beachy Gals arts and culture magazine : : 33 http://www.survivorgirl.org http://www.survivorgirl.org http://www.janspangler.com

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Sarasota Arts & Culture Magazine - September/October 2007

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