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Knowing Joe: Works by Linda Eyermann

March was Indiana Disabilities Awareness Month, and an appropriate time to recognize a very special body of work by an Indiana artist.

“Knowing Joe” is a collection of works by Valparaiso artist Linda Eyermann.

Eyermann, a 2008 recipient of an Individual Artist Program grant from the Indiana Arts Commission, set out to research the impact of life-altering change. Her source of inspiration came from the devastation and courage experienced by the Nimetz family of Wheatfield, Indiana. A traffic accident four years ago had changed the family’s life forever.

The accident left their 18 year-old son, Joe with a traumatic brain injury and living in a semiconscious state, and the rest of the family facing the difficult task of advocating and caring for Joe.

Eyermann first spent time with Joe, and then interviewed family and friends. Her impressions and observations were recorded in a journal. The notes she made served as the foundation of the pieces she created.

Working primarily in oil on canvas, Eyermann’s work tells the story of those lives touched by Joe since the accident. Each piece represents a family member or situations, and conceptualizes the many emotions and thoughts that accompany such a dramatic life-changing experience. From pain, sadness, and frustration to courage, faith and hope the artwork captures the essence of that deeply personal experience.

“I hope this body of work is a catalyst for others to examine or think about their own life-altering change in a healing way,” she explained. “For me, knowing Joe has become a life-altering experience.”

Works include a wide range of images from a delicate hummingbird in flight to a solitary cannon which represent’s Joe’s older brother Jake. While home on leave from the Marines, Jake was driving the truck when it slid on black ice and struck a tree. Eyermann says Jake battles to find his way, and accept the loss of his relationship with his brother, his best friend, and even a piece of himself.

There is a haunting close-up of two sets of eyes representing both Joe and Jake in which Eyermann attempts to capture the pain in Jake’s eyes and the innocence in Joe’s.

In a piece titled “Gathering Strength,” Eyermann depicts Debbie, mother of Joe and Jake, reclining in a bathtub. What at first might seem a dramatic departure from the other works, the artist said she needed to reflect Debbie’s ritual morning bath which is her time to “think, cry, pray, and gather strength.”

For More Information

For more information on Joe Nimetz and his family, visit http://www.supportjoe.com/. Also, a special fund for Joe has been set up at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Crown Point. Please put "Joe's Journey" in the memo section of the check and mail it to: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 250 S. Indiana Ave., Crown Point, IN 46307. 

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