ARTWORK BY TENNESSEE ARTIST
ACCEPTED INTO MDA ART COLLECTION

“Headturner”

TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 13, 2005 – A digital painting by Erin Brady Worsham of Nashville, Tenn., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Art Collection. Now in its 14th year, the Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Worsham’s “Headturner” depicts the artist as she’s viewed by two strangers, who represent the countless people she’s encountered during 11 years of living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The digital artwork represents Worsham’s desire to understand what other people see and think when they see her for the first time.

Worsham’s piece is an example of digital design, or computer art, and it was used to help illustrate an article on self-image and disability in the May-June issue of MDA’s national magazine, Quest. In reference to the piece, Worsham said, “I’ve had to come to terms with the physical changes that can no longer be hidden, and which render me a headturner in any crowd.”

Worsham has contributed two digital designs to the permanent Collection. The first piece, “Breathtaking Metamorphosis,” was donated in July 2001.

ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a progressive disorder that affects parts of the nervous system and causes the disintegration of motor neurons, resulting in the weakening of voluntary muscles. Worsham, 47, who is completely paralyzed below the neck, uses a power wheelchair for mobility. She has a tracheostomy and uses a ventilator.

Worsham is a former actress, singer and dancer who was honored as MDA’s 1999 Tennessee State Personal Achievement Award recipient. She studied at Nashville’s Watkins Art Institute where she received several awards. After the disabilities imposed by ALS made working in other media impossible, she discovered computer art. She operates her computer with a sensor attached to her forehead.

The freelance artist and writer received the 2004 Spirit of da Vinci Award for her creative use of technology. In 2002, Worsham’s work appeared in a one-woman show at the Mezzanine Gallery in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. That show, “Artist Always,” has gone on tour in the US and Canada, co-sponsored by Vanderbilt and The Society for the Arts in Healthcare.

Her artwork also has been displayed in many exhibitions, including the 14th annual Independent Art Gallery Juried Exhibition in Manhattan (2000); the John F. Kennedy Center’s Creative Expressions exhibit at Vanderbilt’s Peabody campus in Nashville (2000-03); and the VSA arts International Festival in Washington (2004).

Worsham’s writing and artwork have been published in MDA’s Quest magazine, New Mobility magazine, Western Kentucky University’s Alumni magazine, the Tennessean, Incredible People (Internet magazine), and Middle Tennessee’s MDA Messenger newsletter. She’s had four articles published in Quest, including “Secret Self” (May-June 2005); “Mind Muscle” (May-June 2004); “From Where I Sit: Who’s the Dummy” (March-April 2003); and “Life on the Vent: The Other Side of the Mountain” (June 2001).

“We’re deeply honored to welcome a second piece by Erin Brady Worsham into the permanent MDA Art Collection,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “Her contributions to our Collection will continue to delight all who see them as they travel to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection.”

The new addition by Worsham is on display at MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and can be seen at www.mda.org/commprog/art/displayall.aspx. Worsham’s piece also 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 comprises more than 300 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; 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 a clinic for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the Vanderbilt, also home of an MDA/ALS center.

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

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