Paul Kremenik, Toledo’s Armless Painter

Today we went to St. Vincent’s Hospital in search of information on Paul Kremenik, the armless artist who lived at St. Vincent’s for 27 years. We were directed to the library and immediately after we asked if they had any information on the armless painter who lived there until 1958, the librarian lit up and said you must talk to Pamela Bayer, the Mercy Regional Librarian Manager. We were directed into Pam’s office, where we saw three paintings by Kremenik leaning against cabinets. Pam explained that, at that exact moment, she was in the midst of organizing a show of his work.

Her curiosity about Kremenik had been peaked by a painting of a dog that had been an iconic painting hanging in the hospital for decades. It was this painting that made her interested in finding out about the artist. When she discovered that he was armless, and lived right there in the St. Vincent’s ward and painted with a brush in his mouth, she thought, how amazing, and how nurturing the hospital was. So she found other work and information on him…she was very surprised that we came asking about him — and as for my project, I hit pay dirt — she allowed me to photograph the three paintings in her office, and will be sending me jpgs of more, both paintings and information…

And incidentally, Pamela Bayer is related to Toledo’s famous folk artist, Harold Everett Bayer (1900 – 1996) who is represented in the American Folk Art Museum in NYC.

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