He’s Looked at Art From Both Sides Now : Athletics: Skier debuts as artist at La Jolla art show that benefits sports programs for disabled athletes.
It’s the worst of two worlds, but Dan Ansley is able to poke fun at both.
“Starving artist, struggling athlete,” said Ansley, a member of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team who has dabbled in stained glass artistry for eight years and in sports--he was a cross-country runner at Hilltop High--even longer.
When an off-road accident left him paraplegic six years ago, he got serious about both. These days, Ansley, 29, is juggling two careers, taking each one a day at a time and trying to do justice to both.
After four years as a volunteer, Ansley debuts this weekend as a selling artist in this weekend’s La Jolla Festival of the Arts and Food Faire. By then, he should know whether he was chosen to compete in next year’s world championships in Albertville, France.
Five years ago, the Torrey Pines Kiwanis Club decided its fund-raising efforts--to finance programs for San Diegans with disabilities, focusing first on its ski scholarship program--were in need of a make over. Rather than sell candy, why not sell artwork by award-winning artists?
The result is the art show, which benefits 12 disabled athletic programs including snow and water skiing, swimming, karate, road racing, tennis and sports camps.
Artists helping athletes. Who would have thought? This relationship initially looks a little like Madonna and Amy Grant sharing a microphone. But this coming together of vocations has enabled almost 100 athletes to attend the Durango, Colo., ski school.
“What’s happened in San Diego at art events,” said artist Dallas Clites, now of Valley Center and founder of the festival, “is usually artists (helping) artists. But to make something successful you have to introduce people to something they don’t know. With the artists and athletes, it has brought them together and made them learn about and get to know each other.”
Ansley knew a little something about both. He already runs an art business--On the Cutting Edge--from his San Diego home. Not that he’s put his skiing on hold.
Ansley returned from the 1990 U.S. Championships with four goal medals and was named “Outstanding Monoskier of 1990,” by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the first non-veteran to receive the award. It was a season of surprise, so he went back for more.
“It was unexpected,” said Ansley, who was a recreational skier before his exposure to competitive racing at the ski school. “But now that I’ve done it, I’m more determined than ever. I put my life on hold for skiing. When I went through the program in Durango, I set high goals. It snowballed and doors opened. My ultimate goal would be to bring home a gold from France.”
Former Charger Hank Bauer, now with KFMB, regularly participates in the NFL Players Assn.’s ski race, held in conjunction with the ski school. It was there he met Ansley.
“Dan told me soon after the wreck that the first thing in his mind was he wanted to ski again,” Bauer said. “I believe it’s one of the reasons for him to live.”
After logging 14,000 miles by car, by himself, from December to April, Ansley’s season ended recently with a disappointing showing at the U.S. Championships at Mt. Hood, Ore.
“I’m focusing on artwork now, but I’m cross-training and working on my strength, gearing toward next (skiing) season. Even if I don’t make the cut (for France), I’ll be on the circuit.”
When it’s time to hang up his skis for good, Ansley finds comfort in knowing the art world awaits.
“I’m still struggling with what I want to do,” he said. “But I know art is something I’ll be able to fall back on.”
He sees his involvement with the festival as pay-back time.
“I’ve come full circle,” said Ansley. “I started at the ground floor of their program. It has given me a whole new outlook on my life and helped build self-esteem and self-worth. I’ve developed a whole new perspective and lifestyle. I’m pulling on both by artistic and athletic talents. I’m a more successful athlete now, because I’m more determined.”
More than medals, more than personal records, more than anything, confidence-building is the reason these programs for the disabled were initially designed.
“We’re not looking just for athletes,” Bruce Cornell said. “We’re looking for people who want to become independent. People who are willing to take the steps necessary to change their lives.”
Cornell, Competitor Magazine’s 1988 Competitor of the Year, is an accomplished wheelchair road racer, snow and water skier. Although still a fierce competitor, at 38, he is equally determined to reach those who struggle with their disabilities.
“I’m a person. I just happen to use a wheelchair,” said Cornell, who was left paraplegic after he was hit by a piece of heavy equipment seven years ago. “The only difference is you walk and I roll. So you beat me uphill and I’ll beat you downhill.”
According to Cornell, people who have been in wheelchairs for a short time sometimes need large doses of encouragement to get out of the house and into the groove.
“A lot of people who get hurt, quit,” Cornell said. “They’s OK for a while but it gets to the point where you don’t allow yourself a chance to succeed. It’s important for someone who’s been hurt to go out and do something. Get out of the house. . . . The hardest door to go out is the front door. But that’s the same for me as it is for you.”
Marathon road racer Mary Thompson was a late comer to sports. When a car accident left her paralyzed from the chest down in 1984, she sought the warmest climate in the country and moved to San Diego from Iowa.
“I was 22 when I started (athletics),” said Thompson, 30. She leaves tomorrow for Switzerland, where she will run in a marathon Saturday, then travels to Germany for another June 8.
“I started swimming first,” Thompson said. “At that point, I didn’t know what I was getting into. Other people who have been involved in sports (and are injured) try different things because they’re looking for a special feeling.”
Although she tried her hand at skiing, it was road racing that caught her fancy. She has raced in 35 marathons and is the only woman to complete the Alaska Midnight Sun Ultra Marathon, a 367-mile race from Fairbanks to Anchorage.
But Thompson isn’t lured by top finishes or the most demanding of courses. Instead, it is beating her personal bests that spurs her on.
“To go out and do a personal record, that’s why I do it,” she said. “I just go against my own time.”
Thompson’s athleticism has spilled over into her everyday living. She doesn’t get as tired as she used to, and she eagerly accepts new challenges.
“The more you do, the more you found is available to you and the more you want to them,” she said.
To keep the current programs available and encourage the forming of new ones, Cornell will forever work to promote disabled programs. He speaks to businessmen, schoolchildren, high schools, teams anyone who wants to hear about them.
“I’ve seen these programs change lives,” he said. “They’re more confident so they’re more productive when they return to their jobs. I promote them because they were there for me.”
