Charles Noderer wanted to paint a penguin Wednesday.
The 74-year-old winter visitor and Ohio native was speaking to a nurse inside his wife, Eunice’s room about the paintings that adorned her wall that day.
They were making small talk about the significance of each painting and the conversation steered toward the nurse’s favorite animal.
Although it may seem like pleasantries to those who don’t know the Noderers, it was important to Charles to figure this out; because to him, knowing what he should paint next is directly connected to how his wife feels that day.
Eunice Noderer, also 74, is an artist originally from Kentucky who has recently been treated at DHR Health in Edinburg for a ruptured disc, which has required surgery. She is now inside a Mission transition facility.
Her husband Charles has made sure that during her stays at both healthcare institutions, there has been art to greet the longtime artist every morning.
For these winter visitors to the Rio Grande Valley, art has also been a tie that binds them in sickness and in health.
Charles said his wife has been in the hospital for about four months, during that time she has taught him different art techniques such as shadowing, lighting and the use of water color pencils. According to Charles, he has painted around 75 different animals — “almost one every day” that she has been in the hospital.
“I am intentionally doing those for her because she said that it helps her … It is something that has occupied us,” Charles said, adding that he wanted to bring music and art to her. “I also sing and play the guitar every day, I like to think of it as music therapy for her. I try to do songs that we have done together and that we know. I sing a lot of James Taylor.”
This isn’t anything new for the couple, who for the 54 years they’ve been together appreciated the arts.
In fact, it makes sense that as Eunice has been recovering from surgery, they’ve relied on the interests they’ve always shared.
“We were both music majors at the time and I met her singing in the college choir, when we were rehearsing a classical piece by Bach called the St John Passion,” Charles said.
They remained in this field as music teachers and opera singers for a professional opera company in Orlando, Florida.
Throughout their time as opera singers they were able to travel to various parts of Europe and South America, including Dublin, Ireland and Ecuador. During their travels they would make it a goal for themselves to visit as many art museums as possible.
Eunice has loved art since she was a child. Her grandmother was an artist who would take Eunice to her art studio and teach her how to paint. Charles said Eunice recalls the smell of turpentine, which is used to clean brushes used in oil paintings, when reminiscing on the moments she spent painting with her grandmother.
Eunice and Charles, who reside in Pennsylvania when not in the Valley, have passed down their love for the arts and music to their two children and five grandchildren who Charles calls the “artsy-fartsy bunch.”
She’s been feeling better these days, Charles said, and hopes to be discharged soon. Until then, Charles said he’ll do his best to present her with a painting each day.
