Derby woman's passion on display

Derby (WTNH) - A Connecticut woman has learned it's never too late to discover your life's passion. In her 80's and battling cancer, Derby's Doris Thorn turned to painting for therapy and discovered she has talent.

Thorn's paintings are on display at a Derby art gallery - pretty amazing when you find out she never even touched a paint brush until four years ago.

"Well, I was invited to join a painting class at Crosby Commons by Marianne Milano at the age of 82," Doris explained.

Doris showed promise right away.

"The teacher came over and said 'I like your style.' I said, 'well, I didn't know I had a style,'" Doris said.

But she did, and she developed that style further by painting 75 more works over the last four years. But what do you do with all those paintings? Doris had a dream to have a gallery show.

"We encourage our residents to have dreams, have goals, have desires. It doesn't matter if you're 85, 90 years old. We should all still have dreams," said Lois Poutney, Crosby Commons Director.

And before you know it, Thorn's paintings were on display at the Gallery at 37, run by the Valley Arts Council.

"The elderly don't get any respect these days, and when they see someone turning out this kind of stuff, it's like, wow," said Richard DiCarlo of the Valley Arts Council.

Now works by Doris and some other seniors are wowing gallery-goers. It's amazing for an 85 year old who's survived seven major cancer surgeries. She says angels helped her get better and now it's angels who guide her paint brush.

"So I try to think of the angels as I paint, and hope that they will influence people who gaze on my works," she said.

Her paintings will be on display until the end of the month.