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When 95-year-old Molly Foreman Kozel was in the hospital with pneumonia, her granddaughter brought her an artist’s sketch pad. She hoped it would keep her grandma busy and lift her spirits. Though Molly had never drawn before, she took to it like a duck to water, and soon had a new, exciting hobby on her hands.
“Once I saw it, it made me happy,” noted Molly Birkenes, another granddaughter, whose sister had bought their grandmother the sketch pad. “I saw how amazing and colorful the art was, so I started sending it to people I know that collect,” Birkenes told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The many-hued abstract drawings, comprised primarily of simple shapes like triangles and squares, soon caught the eye of investor Moishe Mana, who is one of the developers of the artsy Wynwood district in Miami. He purchased five of Foreman Kozel’s drawings for more than $1200 each, with plans to frame and hang them throughout his various homes.
“For Molly, in her 90s, to do and create art with her last drops of energy was shocking and overwhelmed me,” remarked Mana. “I like her art because of who she is and its simplicity and conveying of ideas of an older age woman with a childlike drawing and images.”
Now 96, Foreman Kozel has sold about a dozen pieces, and donated some of her profits to the Warriors Community Foundation in San Francisco, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors foundation that supports education and youth development.
She also gifted some money to the nonprofit TED, as well as to some organizations local to her home of Boca Raton for children to get art supplies.
“I’m able to do something for the children of the world and it made me feel good,” said Foreman Kozel.
