Pat Miyamoto’s paintings fill nearly every room of her apartment.

Miyamoto has been painting for more than seven decades, but her life has never been limited to a canvas. She has traveled the world, studied languages and embraced new adventures well into her 80s. Through it all, art has remained a constant thread.

Born at McKeesport Hospital in 1940, Miyamoto grew up in the Pittsburgh area, where art became an important part of her life at an early age. During the 1950s and 1960s, art teachers from public schools throughout Allegheny County recommended talented students for a Saturday morning program at the Carnegie Museum. Miyamoto participated throughout her teenage years and later studied art and English at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia.

After graduating, she moved to New York City and joined the Art Students League, where she met her future husband, Ken. Their friendship endured even as life took them in different directions.

Miyamoto spent four years in Spain after her father was transferred there. When she returned to the United States, she reconnected with Ken. After knowing each other for about 10 years, they married.

The couple eventually moved to Hawaii, where they lived for 15 years while raising their two sons. For a time, painting competed with the demands of everyday life.

“I had a bag for Scouts, a bag for church because I was a Sunday school teacher, a bag for PTA, and every night I had some kind of meeting,” she said.

Even when she wasn’t spending as much time at the easel, Miyamoto continued pursuing new experiences. Travel became one of her passions, taking her to destinations around the world. Over the years, she has taken numerous trips, including a cruise around the southern tip of South America. She often travels alone and views each trip as an opportunity to experience something new.

“I have taken some of the best trips,” she said.

After returning to Pittsburgh, Miyamoto was able to devote more time to painting. Today, she works primarily in oils.

A member of South Arts since 1995, she regularly enters exhibitions and has earned numerous awards, including Gold Keys from Scholastic Magazine’s annual art contest. In 2020, at age 80, she won the Merrick Masters Exhibition at Merrick Art Gallery for her painting “I Yam American.”

The title reflects an experience she had after moving to New York.

“When I got to New York and got my first job in New York City, people from all over, they’d ask, ‘Where are you from? What’s your country?’”

She would tell them she was as American as anyone could be.

Mt. Lebanon was familiar to Miyamoto long before she moved there. She remembers taking Sunday drives through the community with her father, who would say that one day he would have a house there.

He eventually did, purchasing a home while Miyamoto and her brother were away at college. As a result, they never really had the opportunity to experience living in Mt. Lebanon at the time.

Years later, Miyamoto found her own way back to the community.

She moved to Baptist Manor nearly 20 years ago and continues to paint, read and stay active. She has participated in a Spanish literature group at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library for about 15 years and still reads and discusses books in Spanish.

“I’m trying to keep my Spanish awake and living,” she said.

Miyamoto recently connected with a 92-year-old art professor through Facebook Dating. The two discovered their shared interest in art and now exchange photographs of their paintings, with him offering critiques and compliments on her work.

At 86, Miyamoto remains as engaged and curious as ever, surrounded by paintings that tell the story of a lifetime spent creating, traveling and learning.

“I really try to take advantage of what’s here in Lebo, and there’s a lot,” she said.