Over the years I’ve known a lot of artists. To me they fall into two broad categories: artists who keep studios away from their homes and artists who make their entire home a studio. Patricia and Richard Missler are definitely the latter.
Every wall in their home displays the paintings that the couple have spent a lifetime creating. Richard prefers to work in oils whereas Patricia is more comfortable in acrylics and mixed media—she’s even in the midst of a collaborative work in carved wood, ceramic, and paint. The paintings run the gambit from representational (a waterfall, the family dogs, a green cabbage glistening with dew) to towering abstracts suggesting pavement, or smoking magma.
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
Prior to moving to Bellingham the pair spent over 40 years living in Hawai’i, most recently on five acres in an old-growth native forest in Kona. The influence of Pacific Islands is everywhere in the home, from the furniture to the color palette. Richard’s autobiographical novel, “Starship Maui,” aims to preserve and share part of that experience—of Hawai’i in the 1970s—with readers. He takes them to “a world in which nature reigns supreme, clothing is optional, and drugs are a homegrown means of self-discovery.”
Patricia’s memoir, “Border Town Chica,” on the other hand, takes readers on a journey back in time to Brownsville, Texas in the 1950s, introducing them to Patricia’s Mexican-American family and friends with insightful, humorous, and inspiring stories.
“I didn’t write this with an audience in mind,” Patricia tells me as we sit together on a big, handcrafted wooden sofa. “‘Border Town Chica’ is a gratitude song for my family.”
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
Both Patricia and Richard talk about music a lot, and nature, and poetry. It’s easy to see how they’ve been married for so long. As we walk through the house looking at the numerous paintings, Patricia mentions she’s recently written a poem about a Stellar’s jay she saw creeping up to pull the tail feathers of an eagle sitting atop a tall conifer across the street, and the thrill of reading it aloud at Village Books for the first time.
When Patricia tells me about how they ran their own art gallery for 16 years on the Big Island, Richard smiles and says, “Oh yes, the art gallery…we’ve lived a lot of different lives,” before going on to talk about the massive garden that they tended in Hawai’i—so bountiful that they donated bushels and bushels to the Buddhist temple to distribute to the needy.
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
Seeing the richness of their shared existence I had to ask: what advice would they give others about living this kind of life? Richard doesn’t hesitate.
“You don’t need a special place to do art or write,” he says. “Just start. No one but you can tell your unique story.”
“The Pacific Northwest nurtures creativity,” Patricia adds. “Live an art-inspired life.”
Follow Patricia on her Instagram, @patriciamissler, or find both artists at their websites. Bellingham, richardduxmissler.com, patriciamissler.com
