“I had lost the ability to paint with my hands. I had lost the control to do the things that I’d loved.”
When she was 20 years old, Mariam was paralyzed from a gunshot. And while she suddenly found herself unable to do things from her former life in the way that she used to do them, she found herself still wanting to create through artistic expression.
That’s when she discovered mouthpainting. Mariam has honed her skills for the past 19 years. She says she taught herself the same styles she’d used before her injury. Now she uses her head and neck to control the paintbrush she holds in her mouth, and in this way, she is able to bring forth her unique touch to the canvas. “When I use my mouth to write my name, my signature was the same!” she shares. “It kind of made me feel like, ‘Oh, this art is inside me.’ … I may have lost the ability to do it with my hands, but it’s inside me still. And I just have to bring it out.”
Check out this video tocatch a glimpse of Mariam’s amazing paintings.