‘A brilliant artist and loving father’

On Friday, Creston Arts is hosting an artists’ reception to kick off a month-long exhibition featuring the work of Mike Adams, a 1984 Creston High School graduate and his son, 15-year-old Dmitri.

The show is of particular interest to curator Blake Fry-Schnormeier, who worked alongside Creston Arts organizers to select from more than 100 pieces of Mike’s art to feature. As he examined each piece, he said he not only aimed to select Mike’s best work, but art, that when displayed, would make his family proud.

“He isn’t here to say, ‘No, I never meant for that to be out in the public’ or ‘I was just kind of working through that phase’ or ‘That was just a phase,’” Blake said.

Mike and Dmitri

Jack and Kathryn Adams said their son Mike died suddenly of a heart attack in January. He was 55. His untimely death served a double-dose of heartache for the Adams family as their son Darin, Mike’s younger brother, passed away just eight months prior, leaving an emptiness in the hearts of those they leave behind.

At the time of his death, Mike was living in Lawrence, Kansas, and the primary parent and sole caretaker of Dmitri, a nonverbal, autistic teen. With Dmitri’s mother out of the picture, the Adams stepped up to raise their grandson with the help of family.

Following the death of Mike, Dmitri transferred to Creston High School, where he’s enrolled in a painting class with art teacher Bailey Fry-Schnormeier. Bailey said, as she introduces more tools to Dmitri, the more she’s discovering his gifts.

“We are working on water color, but I introduced him to the iPad. The first moment I got it out I was just blown away. He very clearly has spent a lot of time drawing,” said Bailey. “He’s just so fast. Watching him draw and watching him work through the different tools, the different colors ... he just works really fast and you can tell he’s spent a lot of time doing it.”

A connection

Not only does Dmitri share the same interest in making music and art as his father, but art has served as a way for him to communicate.

At home, the Adams have a book that Dmitri made with assistance of a teacher. The book features digital drawings and paintings he’s made after losing his father.

“I have good memories of my dad. I remember having fun. I remember playing,” a caption reads under a drawing of himself playing a piano.

“Mike was a great musician, too,” said Jack.

“He was a brilliant artist and loving father,’” said Dana Adams, Mike’s older brother.

As Dmitri plays on a keyboard in the kitchen, Kathryn, Jack and Dana sit in the dining room talking about how art was how the father and son spent much of their time.

“His dad and him would sit on the couch or in chairs across from each other and they would both be drawing,” said Kathryn.

Dmitri at school

Bailey said, as she learns more about Mike, she sees his influence in Dmitri. Like Mike, Dmitri uses art to express himself and communicate.

“It’s just so much easier to communicate in my classroom because of the imagery, because of the mediums, and so I’ll just give him some different options, talk about what we’re doing for the day, and he can make those choices,” Bailey said.

Bailey said as she went through Dmitri’s school iPad to look at his art work, she realized he creates more than what’s asked of him. Often his projects have two correlating pieces.

“He had (drawn) two lamps and one was on, one was off. In another two pieces, one was awake, and one was asleep,” she said.

Of his other works that include opposites such as left, right, up, down, walk, don’t walk, Bailey said it makes her think of the communication boards he may use, which are devices commonly used to assist people with limited language skills. Communication boards show pictures, symbols and words, which an individual can express them self by gesturing, pointing to, or blinking at, to communicate with others.

“He’s also incredible at math,” said Bailey. “On one of his projects ... I was like, ‘What are these numbers?’ and he was adding by 14, but he started at 11 and added all the way up to the 200s. And I checked it because I was like, ‘What is this? Are these random numbers?’ But no, they weren’t random.”

The art of Mike Adams

Like his son, Kathryn said Mike was incredibly shy.

“That’s kind of why he used art and music,” she said.

The Adams said Mike never really talked about his art. Kathryn described Mike as a “gentle” person, who loved working as a registered nurse. In recent years, Mike worked in a trauma unit.

“He was a very caring person,” said Jack. “He loved his job taking care of the people. I’m sure he was attached to every one of them.”

But as his job weighed on him, it was art that his family believes helped Mike cope.

“It was almost like therapy,” said Dana. “He was a nurse and around a lot of dying people, people he couldn’t help. To help make it easier, I think it was his therapy.”

As Blake explores the art Mike produced, he said it appears deeply personal.

“It has to do with his life and maybe some of his struggles and experiences,” said Blake. “Others are just free flowing art work, pattern and shapes.”

Mike’s work has many layers and detail. Much of his collection is comprised of complex drawings made with simple mediums, such as ink or graphite on paper. Some of his art is acrylic paint or mixed-media on wood board.

Blake said the layers in Mike’s art are reminiscent of psychedelic and comic book art.

“They very much resemble these zentangles that are popular right now, but to the extreme,” he said.

Mike’s art intrigues Blake.

“Since there’s so many of them, I kind of just wanted to look at them and spend a lot of time studying them to see if there was common subject matters, or reoccurring characters or a storyline,” said Blake. “I was just kind of overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work, realizing that this was a daily practice for him.”

Each of the 100s of works of art Mike created are considered “finished.”

“Even though there’s hundreds of them, he signed all of them,” said Blake. “I just thought, with that many pieces, they would be more personal for him, but I think he was really creating to share his work.”

Kathryn said Mike hosted a public art show as an adult in Kansas, but was scared to show off his work in his younger days.

“He never felt good enough,” she said.

“I think that a lot of artists are kind of insecure in their work or afraid of rejection,” said Blake. “Art is also really subjective, too. What one person thinks is beautiful, another person doesn’t.”

“Art is so personal,” said Bailey. “You put your soul in to it. It’s something that’s kind of vulnerable, so to put it out there for the public, I think it can be intimidating.”

Blake said those attending Friday’s art opening will find Mike’s work fascinating.

“It makes the viewer ask more questions about it and to find a deeper meaning than whats on the surface of it,” he said. “Some of them almost seem like puzzles, like there’s a secret code or secret symbolism, like you have to crack the code.”

Art reception

The public is invited to a free public art show and artists’ reception 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Creston Arts Gallery, located inside Creston’s Restored Depot, 116 W. Adams St. The Art of Mike and Dmitri Adams will be on display through the month of March. For more information, follow Creston Arts on Facebook.