{"id":100882,"date":"2022-06-08T15:48:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T20:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=100882"},"modified":"2022-06-08T15:48:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T20:48:40","slug":"80-year-old-artist-pivots-between-canvas-and-basketball-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/80-year-old-artist-pivots-between-canvas-and-basketball-court\/","title":{"rendered":"80-year-old artist pivots between canvas and basketball court"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mollie Rotmensch
\n<\/strong>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Kathleen Eaton may live in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, but she\u2019s all energy and depth. The professional artist sometimes paints with a twisted knee ligament and jammed fingers. She\u2019s not accident-prone. She\u2019s just baller. This class act puts on her knee brace and low-top Under Armour shoes for 3-on-3 half-court basketball every Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Big deal? Yes. Eaton\u2019s 80 years old. Again, baller.<\/p>\n

\"Arm
Kathleen Eaton (left) waves her arms to block the ball during a scrimmage on May 3. (Mollie Rotmensch\/MEDILL)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She plays on the Chicago North Stars, a women\u2019s team comprising various senior age groups, and they scrimmage pickup games at the Levy Senior Center in Evanston. Eaton\u2019s endorphins probably soar practicing pick-and-roll, but nothing screams adrenaline like the chance to compete in the National Senior Games.<\/p>\n

The largest multisport event for those 50 and over happens every other year. Since COVID-19 put the kibosh on the 2021 games, they were rescheduled for May 2022, making this year the first even-numbered one they occurred. Was that a telltale sign of luck for Eaton? Grounds for superstition? Who could say? Basketballs aren\u2019t magic eight balls. Either way, the tournament was back, and so was Eaton, who had qualified in-state with her teammates for the competition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.<\/p>\n

Eaton returned from the games with no wins but that\u2019s neither here nor there. COVID-19 still exists, even if its toll on daily life is less than it was in 2020, and Eaton\u2019s age puts her in a category of adults with a higher chance of severe illness from the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. But over the last year, people have gradually returned to a sense of normalcy in which the seemingly never-ending cycle of variants and sub-variants doesn\u2019t interfere with everyday activity. Eaton and some of her teammates decided they were ready to travel and compete, chancing COVID-19 out of love for basketball and camaraderie.<\/p>\n

Eaton is swift on the court, but at 5-foot-5, she said she\u2019s not as fast as the taller players. Modesty is reflexive for Kathy Scissorhands, the nickname Rochelle Corso, 60, gave her friend and teammate of 15 years. \u201cShe is a wild woman,\u201d Corso said. \u201cHer hands are all over. She is grabbing at that ball. She\u2019s whacking you (but) not on purpose. And she\u2019s never thinking, \u2018Oh, these fingers, I need to preserve them.\u2019 She\u2019s all in.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Eaton doesn\u2019t worry about basketball affecting her ability to create art. \u201cJammed fingers \u2014 they still function,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n