Jane Park retired from professional golf in 2020 to give full-time care to her daughter, Grace, who suffered brain damage through seizures in the first year of her life. Like most professional athletes who are in a second phase of life, Park needed something to fulfill her competitive fire.
For Park, that became art.
The 39-year-old Southern California native is self-taught via YouTube videos and is about 11 months into her side gig as an artist. She’s already been commissioned to do numerous paintings, including a Clayton Kershaw portrait for LPGA Tour player Lizette Salas, and one for two-time Solheim Cup captain Stacey Lewis’ recent retirement.
The LPGA Tour gave Park an open canvas to create something to represent the 75th anniversary of the tour, so she did five scenes representing the different eras in tour history. Those will be used for giveaways, gifts and auctioned for charity.
There was a surfing theme for Tiffany Joh, her former UCLA golf teammate, who has two paintings gifted from Park displayed in her apartment. She’s done countless gifts for family and friends—which she displays on Instagram. She’s so into it that she already had all of her Christmas gifts painted and shipped by early December.
It’s been a continuous joy to learn, and it began when an aunt of Park’s left her art supplies while visiting.
“I just started messing with acrylic paints one day and looked up YouTube videos to figure out techniques and colors and see what I can kind of render up,” Park said in a phone interview with Golf Digest. “It just kind of snowballed from there.”
After a star-studded amateur career, highlighted by a victory in the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur, Park started playing on the tour in 2007, had 16 career top-10s and was still searching for her first victory when she retired.
Jane Park poses with daughter Grace during Stacy Lewis’ retirement celebration. (Photo courtesy of Jane Park)
Daughter Grace, who is 5, will often be near her mom in a studio in their Atlanta home. Grace, who has refractory epilepsy and is non-verbal, will usually be watching “Ms. Rachel” toddler learning videos on her iPad from her comfy chair while her mom is crafting something. Park will keep an eye on her, and sometimes, there’s a nurse to help Grace, who has substantial challenges due to sudden seizures and brain damage sustained when she was 11 months old.
“It’s a super peaceful time that she and I can spend together. I’m able to do something that I enjoy with my favorite person in the world next to me,” Park said.
Park’s husband, Pete Godfrey, is an LPGA caddie for South Korea’s Hye Jin Choi and is on the road 30-something weeks a year to tournaments all over the world. They are a lot like many families, navigating jobs and life and challenges. As Grace’s full-time caregiver, she finds peace in her art.
“Honestly, it takes my brain off of everything,” Park said. “I’m able to turn on some music, put on some headphones, turn on a podcast or a book or something. Literally, every other part of my brain shuts off. And the only part is the creative part that is trying to mix the perfect hue for whatever skin tone I’m trying to do or whatever shadows I’m trying to paint into make the painting more realistic and 3D.
“I just really like that aspect of it because my brain, when I’m not doing art, is all over the place. It’s hectic, thinking of 10 different things at once, as most moms kind of do. But when I’m able to go into my little art space, I’m able to kind of let all those things go and be nothing but just an artist or a creator, whatever you want to call it.”
