Darshan Russell

Darshan Russell, Dar to some, and Shan within the family, of Poughkeepsie passed away peacefully at Vassar Brothers Medical Center on Friday April 12 th  with her sister Natalie Russell Petrilli, brother Eric Russell and his wife Randel Richner at her side. Her brother John Russell, who resides in South Africa, was able to speak to her by telephone. She had been residing at the Renaissance Rehab and Nursing Care Center in Hyde Park NY since recovering from a fall and respiratory illness in late January.
Darshan was born in New Haven, CT. on February 19, 1952, the eldest of five children. Her father Jack Russell was a Methodist Minister, and her mother Gladyse (Glady) was an artist. Living in Boston from 1960 to 1967, the family was greatly affected by the death of her younger brother David who died in a car accident in 1964. During the 1965-66 school year Darshan lived with relatives in Grenoble France, starting her love of the French language. In 1967 the family moved to Philadelphia for Jack's newest church position at the University of Pennsylvania where Darshan graduated from Philadelphia’s Girls High and attended the University of Pennsylvania. Darshan often visited her grandparents in the Hudson Valley area, Salt Point and Boiceville, NY. Darshan’s artistic impressions can be traced to her grandmother Penny Brunel Dullea’s home on Route 28 in Boiceville with the large concrete statues and totem poles built by her great-grandfather Emile Brunel.

Settling in Poughkeepsie in 1985, Darshan became a well-respected artist in the community, painting in her home studio daily. Self-taught, “Outsider Art” might define her style in the ART WORLD. Family photos, images on paper etc. could sometimes be the starting point for a painting. Many of her paintings were of people and places she knew. Her first exhibit was at the Adriance Library in 1989, where Bob Pucchi recognized her talent in 1991 at the “Mid -Hudson Art and Science Center with her first solo show. The Hudson Journal reviewer said: “Russell’s works are truly seductive. One is immediately lured into them by their lively surfaces and bright colors. Whether capturing a cityscape or a grouping of people interacting, the artist renders these three-dimensional forms with what seems like an effortless gesture of the brush. Russell is able to create a work of grace without being precocious.”  Soon after a 30-year relationship with Carrie Haddad began, exhibiting her work in her Hudson gallery. She exhibited frequently elsewhere in Hudson Valley from the Police Headquarters to small galleries and was proud to have sold so many of her paintings locally. She stopped painting within the last few years when numbness in her hands prevented her from holding her brushes.

Writing and reading were Shan’s true passions, paralleling her painting career. Although she was never published, she left behind two trunks filled with manuscripts, offering intimate glimpses into her observations and experiences. She was a frequent patron of interesting used bookstores and found treasures in boxes of books at Vermont auctions, a pastime that began in her youth. She had once opened and operated a used bookstore in Philadelphia where the only new books she sold were poetry from many small presses from around the country. A voracious reader of history, poems, fiction, she read them all although she avoided romances, saying “I just can’t do that.” 

Darshan was well known at the Poughkeepsie library, beginning years ago with shelving books. Every book sale at the library was a source to feed her passion. As recently as a week before she died, she was specifying her requests for the next week of books to read! She read French aloud daily to retain her fluency and found there were never enough books at the library to satisfy her demands. A typed list was kept (on a typewriter) of the French and English titles and authors recording the thousands of books she read in her lifetime.

Darshan was an integral part of various Poughkeepsie social circles, forming lasting friendships with artists, poets, cat lovers, librarians, and the staff at local establishments like Alex's café and the Three Arts Bookstore. For the past few years, she shared her home with her friend Ron Bailey, who provided invaluable support to her and her family. Her affinity for animals shone brightly through her partnership with Jamie Tyrrell fostering dogs and caring for feral cats and her home became a sanctuary for adopted cats, reflecting her deep compassion for all living creatures.

Darshan was shaped by the holiday summers in their old rustic farmhouse in central Vermont where outhouses, wood fired kitchen stoves and oak barrels gravity filled with water were normal with no TV or radio. She continued that lifestyle, and never owned a TV or engaged in social media interests beside a small group of friends on Facebook. She did read the Sunday New York Times to keep up with the news. Chewy, LL Bean and Amazon were her only online searches. She knew all her friends’ phone numbers and wondered why we needed address books.

Darshan’s mental health journey began at the age of twenty-one, leading to a tumultuous period of hospitalizations and obstacles that would cause most to give up hope. With the support of her parents and exhausting efforts to seek new medical care, Darshan found solace and expression in her artistic and literary endeavors. The last few years, she also struggled with COPD, and she faced these health challenges with resilience and grace, more concerned about the punctuality of doctors than about her own ailments.

Darshan leaves behind her brother John (Biff ) Russell of Boiceville, NY and Scarborough South Africa, niece Becca, grandnephew Kainoa, grandnephew Jove in Oregon, brother Eric Russell, wife  Randel Richner, nieces Lily and Julia from Ann Arbor Michigan, sister Natalie Russell Petrilli, husband Edward Petrilli, Cape Carteret NC,  nephews Justin, wife Meredith Kate  grandnephews Hayden and Emmitt , Anthony, wife Caroline Henry Petrilli, grandniece Hazel, grandnephew David, Gianno Petrilli and niece Taj Petrilli all residing in North Carolina.

The family is planning a celebration of her life on June 4 th  at her favorite restaurant in Poughkeepsie, Alex’s Café on Main Street. The staff there genuinely loved “Dar” and the family had the honor of presenting Alex's with one of Darshan's many paintings of Main St. Poughkeepsie. The family suggest memorial contribution made to:  Poughkeepsie Public Library (PPL). Note on check “Allocated to Extension Services in Memory of Darshan Russell.”  You may share a special memory, photo, or condolence with the family on Darshan’s Tribute Wall at www.gormleyfuneralhome.com  Arrangements under the direction of the E. B. Gormley Funeral Home 87 Main St. Phoenicia.

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