Since 1970, Marguerite Costigan has painted Central Coast landscapes. She has displayed her work throughout San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and has been juried into national/international art shows.

But in 2005, she found herself grasping her brush with both hands to keep it steady. It took all of her concentration to paint details, something she had done easily as a commercial illustrator. When sketching, the pencil would sometimes skitter off in unintended directions.

Marguerite consulted a neurologist and had brain scans taken. The diagnosis was Parkinson’s disease, an incurable and progressively-debilitating disorder. After receiving the bad news, she joked with her husband, “I should produce seascapes. My shaking hands can paint crashing surf perfectly.”

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”Marguerite Costigan” link=”” color=”#FF6699″ class=”” size=””]While life with Parkinson’s is challenging, Marguerite continues to paint. “I pick the really good days when my meds work and I have enough energy.”[/pullquote]

While life with Parkinson’s is challenging, Marguerite continues to paint. “I pick the really good days when my meds work and I have enough energy.”

Marguerite’s most recent painting, “Oak at Sunset,” won an honorable mention award at the 2015 Aquarius Show sponsored by the Central Coast Watercolor Society. A sampling of her work can be found at The Gallery at the Network, 778 Higuera Street, and at Frameworks, 339 Marsh Street, both in downtown San Luis Obispo.

While her life as an artist slows, her work as a published poet accelerates. The County Board of Supervisors proclaimed Marguerite as San Luis Obispo County’s Poet Laureate for 2015-16. Since the appointment, she has presented her poems at more than thirty readings throughout the County. Her prose poem “Waking, with Parkinson’s” will appear in the upcoming issue of Blood and Thunder, a literary journal published by the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. In November 2015, she will be a featured reader at the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival: Language of the Soul.

For details, check out https://www.languageofthesoul.org/slo_poetry/.