Stippling More Than Just Art

Willy Parker of Toledo was cruising just fine in life, working some pretty tough jobs (lugging beef, for one) and staying busy with a new form of art he discovered in 1990 -- stippling dot art, he calls it.

You draw a sketch first in pencil, then you complete it with dots and little marks in ink. It was a very enjoyable hobby for Willy, now 53.

About the year 2000, Willy noticed that his hands began to shake. After seeing a doctor he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War from 1974 to 1976, Willy had been in training at Camp Lajune, N.C. He since learned that contaminated drinking water there from 1957 to 1987 could have caused, or at least contributed, to his Parkinson's. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Rather than feel down and out and sorry for himself, Willy continued to produce his stippling art. He became a member of the state commission for disabled people and joined Very Special Arts, a program designed to help artists with disabilities. And he works full time in maintenance at Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel west of Tama.

As his Parkinson's has worsed, Willy has come up with a way to continue his art and still doesn't feel bitter.

"With a sandbag on my wrist and Parkinson's I can dot faster than the wind," Willy told me.

As a veteran, he receives benefits at the VA Hospital in Iowa City. While they take good care of him, he's disappointed that he still has to pay $21 a month for medication.

"I don't want any money for what happened," Willy says, "but if they could take care of that. The $21. That's all I'd need.

"Why do I need more?" he continues. "They can't do any more (medically) for me. It's all in God's hands."

In this sue-happy word, it's refreshing to run into someone who isn't out to get someone to pay for something that was an accident. It's refreshing to meet a person of Willy's caliber who takes what life has given him and moves on.

Willy's art is very nice, very detailed, very telling. It comes from a man who knows himself, knows what he wants out of life, and knows that he alone controls his own destiny.