VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Durwood Zedd has learned to live with the fire.
The pain that can flame around his face and through his teeth was a dull throb as he searched stacks of abstract paintings and nature photographs to include in his art exhibition.
The constant buzzing in his ears has become tolerable; at least his symptoms don’t debilitate him as they once did.
Zedd, 70, has had several careers, one as a professional auctioneer, his family name well known in local business circles for decades. He owned a gym, worked as a trainer, ran clothing and retail stores and became a successful photographer in San Francisco.
His latest turn might be his most important. Eight years ago, Zedd developed a neurological disorder that threatened to rob him of his ability to work and to live.
But he channeled his energies into painting, and he will open “Durwood Zedd: Retrospective of Photography and Paintings” at the Towne Bank Pavilion Center I in Virginia Beach. The work will be on display through August.
“The art is what keeps me going,” he said.
Zedd grew up in Norfolk and worked in the family’s auction business, and he and his brother ran their own. He also ran the popular Eljo’s clothing store at Wards Corner before taking off for San Francisco in 1988 to try something new.
He was going on a trip to Italy, and his then-girlfriend gave him a camera. Zedd exhausted rolls of film, and his friend was struck with how well composed and distinctive the photos looked.
“They ’re actually pretty good,” Zedd remembers her saying. “They don’t look like tourist photographs.”
He was working as a trainer at the time and saw a client walking around the gym with an auction catalog. Zedd wanted to get the man’s opinion of a photo Zedd had in his car.
“How much do you want for it?” the man asked.
Zedd didn’t know what to say, so he just tossed out a number: “$350.”
The guy ordered one. Minutes later Zedd was telling the story to a co-worker when another man tapped him on the shoulder and asked about the photo. He wanted one, too. Zedd quoted the price, and the man asked Zedd to bring in all of his work.
The one print was all Zedd had.
He started taking more photographs, and the man became a regular customer, buying more than 50 pieces.
Zedd then rented a space to sell his pictures of nature and architecture. He added unique fixtures, tables and accent pieces, and soon had a boutique of high-end items. Actresses Sharon Stone and Liv Tyler and writer Danielle Steel would come in, he said.
Years of growing up in auction houses gave Zedd an appreciation for the eclectic and hard-to-find pieces his customers loved. Zedd’s photographs were eventually exhibited at galleries in San Francisco, San Jose and New York.
Then one morning in October 2009, a searing sensation shook Zedd awake.
“It felt like an ax was going through my head,” he said. “It wasn’t a headache; it was just head pain.”
He can’t even remember how he got to the emergency room. After hours of tests, a doctor told him to see a neurologist and a psychiatrist.
“Because if this keeps up,” Zedd was told, “you’ll need some help.”
He was later diagnosed with trigeminal autonomic cephalgias, a disorder of the trigeminal nerve, the sensory nerve of the face. It creates headaches that Zedd says feel like something is boring into his skull, incessantly. Brushing teeth, talking, a caress of a cheek can induce waves of crippling pain.
Zedd spent months in pain clinics and tried Botox shots, oxygen regimens, pills and hypnosis. A man who was once a competitive marathon runner was struggling to negotiate his steps. He couldn’t focus and use his camera. Light also became a trigger, and he was confined to his apartment.
He picked up a paintbrush. He started documenting his pain in daily sketches. He’d paint a woman’s face to reflect his mood, a slight smile on good days, sometimes a blank stare, other times a grumpy look when the rent was due and he wasn’t sure how it would be paid. He always included a cigarette dangling from the lips.
He realized he was painting memories of his childhood. The “Cigarette Girls,” as he named the series, represented his mother and aunts who died from lung cancer. He now has more than 600 works in the series.
“When I started doing something, it pushed the pain aside, somewhat,” he said. “I would paint and paint and paint and paint.”
He moved back to Virginia three years ago to be closer to family. Medicine lessens the pain but doesn’t eliminate it. There is no cure for the condition.
Zedd sells his work, and his studio and gallery space are stuffed with thousands of canvases and photographs of foggy Tidewater mornings and detailed snapshots of architecture. He has more than enough for his first Virginia exhibition.
Zedd is exhilarated and nervous at the same time. He has made good friends through Virginia Beach’s Artists’ Gallery co-op, and other friends have helped him pull together the exhibition. He’s planning to have children’s groups tour the gallery, and he’ll chat with them about art.
Some days will be tough, he knows, but his world is opening again.
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