Jane Park’s life changed forever in July 2021.
That’s when her 10-month-old daughter, Grace, was rushed to hospital, suffering from seizures and brain swelling.
Grace was eventually diagnosed with refractory epilepsy, and the brain damage she sustained required round-the-clock care. Suddenly, Park went from 15-year LPGA Tour veteran to full-time caregiver alongside her husband, Pete.
In the years since Grace’s diagnosis, Park has documented the grief, frustration and small victories of Grace’s journey on social media. She returned to play one final LPGA Tour tournament, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, in 2023, and later that year received the LPGA’s Heather Farr Endurance Award. In 2022, Pete had started playing for Hye-Jin Choi, who has two runner-up finishes this year and is sixth in the CME points standings heading into this week’s season finale.
The park is off-site in Naples, Fla. this week – but her paintings are, which is extremely impressive given that Park didn’t pick up a paintbrush until February of this year.
In honor of the LPGA’s 75th anniversary, Park created original commemorative artwork that will be used for several purposes, including giveaways and as gifts with ticket purchases.
“We were looking for a creative way to celebrate the end of our 75th anniversary season,” said Christina Lance, LPGA director of communications. “Jane’s art caught our eye and we loved the connection with a former player.”
Park returned to painting as an “escape,” she said, and refined her stroke in more similar ways.
“You can learn anything on YouTube these days,” she told me with a laugh earlier this week. “I’ve been looking for simple landscapes, pictures that I can draw, and there’s a bunch of tutorials online that give you, step-by-step, how to mix colors and what brushes to use. And that was a really great thing for me to discover, just to be able to shut my brain off and just do something that’s step-by-step. And feeding my brain something different.”
In January, the LPGA will officially celebrate its 75th year with a pro-am at the Pebble beachwhere Park’s artwork will be auctioned off with proceeds benefiting the LPGA Foundation.
Park used a forming medium on canvas for the green background of each piece and acrylic paint. It divided the LPGA’s 75 years into four different time frames, with prominent players representing each era.
“Obviously there are some very popular figures in golf, and I basically chose a reference photo that could have good shadows because it makes the figure pop off the canvas,” Park said. “It was really hard to choose what I did because there are so many.”
For Park, making art has enhanced her life in ways previously unanticipated.
“It gave me a way to connect with people outside, even more than just talking about my daughter’s disability,” she said. “But also, I like to paint things for people so they feel seen.”
