By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

AN exhibit honoring Douglas Rankin, described by local art collectors as “the great island artist,” opened at 10 a.m. yesterday at the CNMI Gallery for Arts and Culture on Capital Hill.
Online commentator Ruth Tighe, who own some of Rankin’s paintings, said the painter has been ill since last year.
“We wanted to have this exhibit when he was still in better health because I believe in recognizing people when they’re still alive, so we have been trying to do this since September. It’s just unfortunate it took us so long,” Tighe said.
Arts Council coordinator Sinforosa Pinaula said Rankin’s wife, Bernie, who was also an artist, passed away in November last year.
The exhibit had to be put on hold because Rankin had to go to Hawaii for treatment, Pinaula said.
“But because his wife died in November, he had to come back to Saipan,” she added.
Pinaula said after announcing the exhibit schedule, people who have Rankin’s paintings, including Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez and DFS president Marian Aldan-Pierce, volunteered to lend paintings for the exhibit.
All the paintings in the exhibit belong to people who want to pay tribute to Rankin, Pinaula said.
Rankin landed a job at a filling station five years after he arrived on Saipan sometime in 1966.
He has represented the islands at tourism shows in Japan and South Korea, and taught summer art classes to children at Kilili Beach.