Jill Schramm/MDN Virigina Conn stands Wednesday in the Taube Museum, where her art is on display through Oct. 8.

Virginia Conn’s adventure in art began years ago, yet it’s just beginning.

As an expressionist painter, the 18-year-old art student at Minot State University developed a style over the course of her young life that’s emotive and subjective. That style further developed this past summer, following a serious automobile crash.

“I always would use art to work through things,” Conn said, noting that has been true since her accident as well. “I like to make stories of everything, or find meaning.”

While that has led her work to stand out, she adds, “I don’t think I’m special or anything. I’m just different.”

A number of her acrylic paintings are on display in her “Nature’s Infection” exhibit that runs through Oct. 8 in the Taube Museum of Art’s Langer Gallery in Minot.

“I have so many nice friends who made this possible,” Conn said of her first solo exhibit, which included an artist’s reception last week.

The honor of being selected last January to exhibit at the Taube nearly was jeopardized in mid-July.

A runner, Conn had been driving to the Bison Plant Trail, southeast of Minot, when her car and a semi-truck collided.

“I’m lucky to even be alive,” said Conn, who woke up in the hospital with injuries that included spinal bone cracks, broken ribs, a punctured lung, extensive facial bone damage and brain bleeding. She spent two weeks in a Fargo hospital, where she underwent surgery.

“I remember when I first saw myself in the mirror after the accident,” said the effervescent Conn. “My face was all swollen and I had a new scar, and I was just thinking ‘Well, I’m not the prettiest, but I can work with this. I just need confidence.'”

Because of her traumatic brain injury, she had difficulty with her short-term memory. However, almost right away, while still in the hospital, she was drawing.

“I guess I remembered I was an artist,” she said. “A bunch of people sent me sketchbooks, and that is so sweet. I was so happy to have those.”

Her dominant right side was affected by the accident, which has been a challenge for her as an artist. She continues to see improvement, though, and as she recovers, she has noticed changes in her art.

“My attention span is a lot smaller than it used to be. I think a lot about my main idea, and I’m not so detail-oriented anymore,” she said. “I don’t start over as much. I just passionately work.”

“Nature’s Infection” includes paintings she’s created in the past year, including both pre- and post-accident works. Conn said her style changed from the clean lines of her early paintings to less distinct lines post-accident. She also more often tells herself, “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just express yourself.”

“I’m really into Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, and I guess the accident really reminded me of that. I’ve been thinking about things I like about their art and how I can make that my own,” she said.

Like Kahlo, who was a Mexican painter, Conn often works with self portraits in her art. Conn’s accident gave her another connection with Kahlo, who faced lifelong medical problems after a bus she was riding collided with a street car when she was 18.

“Frida Kahlo was very vulnerable with her paintings. I’ve just been trying to have that level of vulnerability lately,” Conn said. “I had more of a narrative before, where now I step back and take my narrative apart and try and get it as true as possible.”

Conn has been an artist from an early age.

“I think when I was one or two, I took a crayon and wrote on the walls and did giant bunny rabbits. That’s kind of where it started. My poor parents had to repaint the house all the time, because I’m a rebel and an artist,” she chuckled. “They’ve always been so supportive, though.”

One of her exhibit paintings that features family is a representation of the care shown by her parents, Dan and Linda Conn, and brother after her accident, even when it required tough love from them.

“This was one of my first paintings after getting home and getting well,” she said. “I guess I just feel loved by friends, family.”

As a first-year art student at MSU, Conn believes she’s in the right place to continue to hone her art.

“I think it’s a class full of great artists, and I am so excited to be going there because I feel like I’m going to learn, and I feel like I’m already learning how to be better about my craft and craftsmanship,” she said. “I work in passion, and it’s not always clean, and I feel like going to Minot State, I’m learning how to step back and think a little bit, and not just impulsively throw colors on. I’m learning more about composition and all kinds of good stuff from my professors and classmates.”

She is taking strictly art classes this fall because of the uncertainty over whether her cognitive abilities might recover quickly enough to allow her to take on other academic courses. She is hopeful this month to be nearing the end of her physical therapy.

“They weren’t sure when I left the Fargo hospital whether I was going to be physically restored or cognitively restored, but luckily, I am,” she said. “I’m still not quite physically there but I think I’m close.”

She also sees herself coming away from the accident with a healthier self esteem and a greater empathy for people with disabilities, making her a better advocate for herself and others.

“I think my goal is, through my art, to show what that does to someone,” she said of the challenge she’s faced. “Maybe people who haven’t been through the same experience, but something similar, could connect to that.”

(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944 or call 1-800-735-3229. You also can send email suggestions to eogden@minotdailynews.com.)