By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
“The peace that passes all understanding.” Philippians 4:7.
In some ways it is a Bible verse that sums up the search of mankind. Everyone wants success, perhaps a few dollars in the bank and respect from their peers—but ultimately all humans are seeking peace as they live their lives on this Earth.
Many people who find running for fitness will say there is great peace during that time. And for a lifelong Slidell resident named Bobby Beck, his search for peace certainly began in that way.
For Slidell sports fans that have been around a few decades, the name Bobby Beck will forever be synonymous with the best track and field athlete the city has ever known. Under the guidance of Salmen High track coach Jimmy Roper, Beck emerged in the late 70s as the best distance runner in the state, and ranked among the best in the nation.
Beck was undefeated as a distance runner as a junior and senior, won 10 state championships in track and went to LSU on a college scholarship that eventually led to the Olympic trials in 1984. As an All-American college track star, he got ever so close to the grand dream of running in the Olympics, but came up short. He said he will always remember a summer day in Canada in 1985, the final time he took the track in a competitive race.
“I was trying to get a time that would be good enough for the Olympics, but after running a race in Canada that summer, I remember getting in my car and leaving the stadium, and I never ran competitively again,” he said. “I gave it 100 percent, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t have a sponsor so I could train full-time and it came down to money.”
Beck said he used to enjoy the endless miles of training during high school when he found peace and was able to relax. But now, over 30 years later as he continues a professional career as a highly successful chiropractor in Slidell, Beck has found a new love—and a new way to find peace.
“It all started after Katrina,” Beck said from his luxurious home in Slidell. “I was like everyone else. We had a foot of water in the house, I looked around and saw everything destroyed, and needed to do something to rise to this challenge.”
A friend introduced him to painting even though he admitted he had never painted in his life. But somehow there was a new connection to peace for Beck, and nine years later it is the new love of his life—along with his new wife, Suzy.
Not only has Beck, now 52 years of age, discovered painting as a great outlet towards peace in his own life, but as a Christian man he is using his talent to help others.
“Painting has helped me find peace in my life,” he said. “It brings me to a place of surrender to God. Maybe that’s why I like to paint some pictures of churches, with many colors to portray different kinds of churches—it speaks of the search for spirituality for us all.”
But Beck said he also believes his new connection to painting was led by God so he could help others. He said he continually paints art for those who have had difficulties in life, or challenges that he can paint about—all in the hopes of bringing peace to others.
“I want to minister to people through my art,” he said. “When I know someone has lost a loved one, a friend, even a pet, I can do a portrait and hopefully help them.”
Beck laughs when asked about his talent, and whether he had painted at a younger age.
“I never painted in my life before Katrina,” he said, smiling as the spots of gray hair showed the years past his days of stardom on the track. “I don’t consider myself an artist; I’m more of an expressionist. I paint what I feel, especially when someone tells me about a difficulty in life. I feel that when I paint for them.”
Beck said the closest thing to being an artist had been an interest years ago in carving ducks. But along with painting after Katrina came an increased interest in woodworking, and he has a multitude of furniture pieces in his home that he built from old cypress wood retrieved from abandoned buildings. For that matter, beams in the house he built in Slidell came from an old church in Crowley, La. that was being torn down.
Many of Beck’s paintings depict the search for spirituality, and many of those paintings have faceless individuals standing off from the church buildings, all with long, shadowy legs.
“When I used to run it was frequently late at night and my shadow was always long from the street lights,” he said. “That’s why so many of my paintings have people like that.”
He also enjoys landscape and outdoors art, with virtually all his art having special meaning of his own life, or that of his family. Several of his outdoor scenes involve between 60,000 and 80,000 brush strokes to capture the incredible color of trees on a fall or winter day.
Beck acknowledges that painting has become the new passion in his life, after track was it for his early years, and his professional chiropractic career took over in his 20s.
“I was passionate about running, but now I’m passionate about my art,” he added. “Sometimes I have painted all night long and gone to work the next day and felt refreshed. This has become a way for me to express my thoughts and has brought great pleasure to me.”
A third subject for Beck is what he calls “whimsical, circus-type characters.” He recently painted that kind of portrait for a woman whose dog died.
“I have painted things that connect to my life—difficult times in my life, but the paintings make me laugh, even today, when I look at them,” he said.
Another unique aspect to all of Beck’s art is the framing of his portraits. He uses old cypress wood “skin,” the outer part of the tree that is left after boards are cut.
“One time I was at an art show in New Orleans and a guy was more interested to buy my frames than my paintings,” Beck said with a laugh. “It definitely is something different I use on my art.”
Beck graduated from LSU in 1984 with a micro biology degree, saying he always wanted to be a doctor. After pursuing the dream of the Olympics for nearly five years, he made the decision to become a chiropractor, but at the same time he was in school for that degree, went to night classes to obtain an Exercise Rehabilitation Masters Degree.
Showing the drive that led him to great success as a track star, Beck took 36 hours of classes for two years continually to prepare him for the next chapter of his life. He began as a chiropractor in Metairie, and quickly connected with neurosurgeon Dr. Bert Bratton before returning to Slidell to open his clinic here, where he teamed up with Bratton for pre- and post-operative work on Bratton’s clients.
“Dr. Bratton had such faith in me and is one man who always did what he said he would do, and asked nothing in return,” Beck said. “That’s the same way Jimmy Roper was—he taught me a lot, like Dr. Bratton did.”
Beck continues to operate his chiropractic clinic in Slidell with an emphasis on strength and conditioning, “something Dr. Bratton believed in.”
Beck said his passion in life has three chapters—track, his professional work, and now the art that he discovered after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
“I’m not interested in selling my art, although I’m not saying it would hurt to sell something once in a while,” he said with a laugh. “But truly, I consider what I do ministering through art.
“I find people in need and see what I can paint for them,” he added. “This has brought me more peace in my life than ever before. It’s helped me to accept things more—to surrender—and I know this is what God wants me to do.”
Beck has three sons from his first marriage, and now has two step-sons with Suzy, whom he married five months ago.