KALONA

If an artist could choose an ideal curator for their work, they might choose someone structured and organized, someone who not only could choose meaningful pieces but also knew the backstories behind the works. Perhaps they might choose someone who understood them as a whole person, not just an artist.

When Francis (Frank) Brenneman passed away at the end of 2021, he left his daughter, Corrie Schlabach, mountains of prints, piles of newspaper clippings, and boxes of ribbons and awards. Sorting through it was a daunting task, but earlier this year she was given a reason to make progress.

“The Brenneman family was having a family reunion here and they asked me if I wouldn’t mind bringing just a few pieces to display,” Schlabach says. “It turned into this whole big thing because my dad has a lot of pieces,” and Hillcrest Academy, where both Schlabach and her dad attended high school, had gallery space available.

That request resulted in an entire art exhibit at the Hillcrest gallery that the family enjoyed this summer. Now as we head into fall, the public is invited to appreciate it as well.

Brenneman was a quirky guy with a sense of humor who couldn’t resist the drive to create. By the time he was nine years old, he knew he wanted to be an artist. “I always spent time drawing instead of studying,” he told the Washington Evening Journal in 1994. “I even flunked second grade because I drew too much.”

That compulsion to make things continued through high school, where he would hide out with a sketchbook when he should have been in class. And it would follow him into the working world where he would find ways to exercise his creativity, as evidenced by the little welded characters he crafted while working at Kinze.

“He was always just doing art, no matter what job he had,” Schlabach says.

He explored many mediums: ink, watercolor, sculpture, and acrylics. But ultimately, he settled on just one: the humble pencil.

“I felt divided, like I wasn’t growing anymore. By focusing on pencil, I can strive in one area,” he told the Journal. “There’s no point in doing another drawing it I can’t do it better than the last one.”

He titled himself “The Pencilist.”

Life wasn’t all sunshine and roses growing up with an artist dad. Because he wanted to devote himself solely to his art, he spent much of his time traveling to art shows across the country selling his work.

“That was a tough time because there’s this saying called ‘starving artist.’ That’s what he was,” Schlabach says. “He always found a way to provide -- if he had to work whatever job on the side, he would -- but there were times where he was gone a lot.”

Brenneman’s work resonated with people. His drawings of kids, farm scenes, Native Americans, and cowboys found an audience, perhaps in part because it’s a marvel they were created with just a pencil.

“There aren’t many pencil artist that do it the way that I do,” Brenneman told the Journal. “What they call finished is where I’m half done when it comes to contrasts and blacks. It’s like painting with a pencil.”

For a while his art could be found at New Harvest Gallery in downtown Kalona, a venture he was a part of alongside fellow artists Craig Shellady, Shirley Wehr, and John “Lefty” Wilson. He sold his work at Kalona Fall Festival, and Kalona Mennonite Church and Pleasantview had pieces on display.

“I was always kind of proud to go into places where his stuff was hanging,” Schlabaugh says. “It was interesting and always fun to be like, ‘My dad did that.’”

He invested a great deal of time into each piece, sometimes 250 hours, sometimes more. And he put them to work to support causes he believed in, such as Water for Life, for which prints of his work were sold to finance well-drilling in Haiti, and Bikers Against Child Abuse, the Cedar Rapids chapter of which he founded.

When folks take in the exhibit at Hillcrest Academy, they’ll find Brenneman’s playfulness on display even within the serious. The illustration on a toilet seat lid will surprise; the instances of acquaintances becoming unwitting subjects will amuse.

“I think sometimes he was thinking, ‘How can I shock people,’ or ‘How can I get people to do a double take,’” Schlabach says. “And part of it could have been, ‘I just like this.’ It might be just for him.”

“Overall, I just want to evoke emotion,” Brenneman told the Journal.

Schlabach hopes viewers will appreciate the vision, patience, and energy her dad put into his work, and that it inspires them to see the world from a new perspective.

Brenneman could have no better curator.

“He was like my best friend,” she says. “I definitely don’t want him to be forgotten.”

View the Francis Brenneman art exhibit at Hillcrest Academy during campus events, during the school day, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., by checking in at the main office, or by appointment by emailing art instructor Bryn Hovde at bhovde@hillcrestravens.org. The exhibit will be on display through December 2026.