Pamela Richardson of Mar Vista sits in her electric cart and does pencil portraits of notable people.  Saturday she was at Oakwood Park for the Mayor’s Walk doing Mayor Eric Garcetti’s portrait.  She said she had the former Mayor’s portrait as she flipped through her album showing the notables and astounding all who watched.

She said she had three of President Barak Obama’s portraits, all signed, and each from a different location.

Her album is filled with pencil portraits of notable people and all signed except one-Howie Mandel. (Mandel has an obsessive, compulsive disorder (OCD) regarding his hands and germs.)  She has three such albums, approximately 100 to 300 portraits with signatures.

She rattled off the “A” list of Hollywood like it was nothing-Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mack, George Clooney of Oceans 11.  She said she waited outside next to Jamie Fox’s limo when he was filming the Jimmy Kimmel show to get his signature.

“It’s good,” he said when he looked at the portrait.  “It was the year he got the Academy Award,” she said.

Disability
Pamela is a disabled Army veteran.  She was serving in Iraq as a graphic artist when she was asked to help unload water from a Humvee.  Water was unloaded and driver was ready to leave.  Driver put vehicle in reverse instead of forward gear.  Unfortunately Pamela was behind vehicle and was pinned up against a metal something and both her legs were severed below the knee.

“They quickly sewed both legs back on but one didn’t take,” she said. “Gangrene set in on one and they had to remove more than was severed.  It had to be re-amputated.”  She has prosthesis for it now.

“The other one,” she said, “is in constant pain with pins and rods and I have to keep it heated continuously no matter what the temperature is outside.”

Background
Pamela served as a police officer for 14 years in Chicago and had 11 years as a reservist before she was called to active duty.  She had two full, four-year terms on active duty.  Her last was in Iraq.  She got a Bachelor of Art degree from University of Maryland, European division, when she was stationed in Heidelberg.

President Obama
She saw President Barack Obama in Washington when she was in Walter Reed Hospital. That was her first signature of the President.  Then she met him in Chicago.  Her mother and Michelle Obama went to same high school.  That was her second one.  And “I have Michelle’s too.”  Her third autograph of the President was in Los Angeles the day, as she said, “Whitney Houston died.”

“President Barack Obama and I go way back,” she said.

“I volunteered at his Community Center in Chicago.  In fact he picked up my mother once to take her to dialysis.  My mother said ‘we’ve got to get that boy a car.’  He had a car but he had wood where the floor board was or something.  Anyway my mother said it rattled all the way.”

Signatures
She was asked if she mailed the portraits to the people to get a signature or if she was lucky enough to be there when the subject was.    She said she gets most on the spot when she finishes or almost finishes the portrait.  She said she got Stephanie Powers’ signature before doing the portrait.  She and Powers were at the same restaurant.

“I didn’t want to bother her at lunch so I asked for a signature before she sat down,” she said.

Pamela is proud to rattle off the names of the people she has signatures of on the portraits she’s done.  She mentioned George Kennedy, Maxine Waters, Johnny Grant.  In fact, she mentioned so many names that it was impossible to write them down.

Job
Other than doing portraits, Pamela is out all day long on her electric vehicle looking for a job.  Disability and Army retirement checks don’t go very far in Los Angeles.  She doesn’t get paid for her portraits.