The Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center will host an artist reception Thursday for 91-year-old Sioux Falls painter Phyllis Jorgenson.
Her work reflects family history, memories of travel and “observations of life’s quiet moments and grand inspirations.”
Jorgenson, who also is an author and former business owner, painted early on before raising her three daughters. She then returned to painting after her children were grown and became self-taught through workshops and community art gatherings.
For her gallery showing at the Washington Pavilion, she has curated a unique selection of paintings only seen by close family and friends before this.
In 2019, Jorgenson wrote “Self-Portrait: Help and Hope When Your Loved One is Suffering from Addiction,” a memoir about the faithfulness she had alongside her late husband, Glenn Jorgenson, as he was recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. They founded in 1970 River Park Treatment Center, the first-ever nonprofit, privately funded addiction treatment center in South Dakota.
She also was featured in “It’s Great to be Alive: Understanding Addiction and Offering Hope,” a biography written in 2016 by former Argus Leader journalist and River Park alumnus Terry Woster, about the Jorgensons and their treatment center.
The artist reception will be 5-8 p.m. April 10 at the Washington Pavilion’s Visual Arts Center, 301 S. Main Ave.
A Storied Life: Artwork by Phyllis Jorgenson gallery showing will end April 20.