Drawing By Houston Teen Accepted By MDA Art Collection

"Swing, Batta Batta, Swing" by Daniel Padilla

TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 28, 2002 — A drawing by Daniel Padilla of Houston has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. Now in its 11th year, the Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Padilla's "Swing, Batta Batta, Swing" is a mixed-media piece, drawn in crayon and enhanced with bright watercolors to create a whimsical effect. The piece depicts images of a baseball and glove, along with two baseball bats, superimposed over a ballpark infield.

Padilla, 15, is affected by Becker muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that most typically affects adolescent and adult males, causing weakness and wasting in muscles of the hips and pelvis, upper arms and upper legs.

Padilla created the work last year during an MDA Bilingual Seminar, which he attended along with his younger brother, David. Padilla said the project allowed him to combine two of his greatest passions: art and baseball.

"We're honored to have such a colorful drawing by Daniel Padilla in the permanent MDA Art Collection," MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. "His contribution to our Collection will undoubtedly delight all who see it as it travels to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection."

The new addition by Padilla will be exhibited at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and will be included in MDA Art Collection traveling exhibits. The Collection was established in 1992 to focus attention on the achievements of artists with disabilities, and to emphasize that physical disability is no barrier to creativity.

The permanent Collection currently comprises more than 270 works by artists aged 2 to 82 and represents all 50 states. Each artist is affected by one of the neuromuscular diseases in the MDA program.

Selected art from the Collection has been exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art; Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center and Forbes Magazine Galleries in New York; Tucson Museum of Art; Bishop Museum in Honolulu; Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center; Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art; Los Angeles Children's Museum; JFK Center at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Duluth Art Institute; Capital Children's Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich.

MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains clinics for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, and the Vicki Appel MDA Neuromuscular Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine, both in Houston, and at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center in nearby Beaumont, Texas.

The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.