Hi, I'm Shane, and I am a mouth painter.  I paint by holding the brush in my mouth. I was born and raised in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia and also lived in Newfoundland for two years.

 

In 1992, at the age of 16,  I was in a car accident and sustained a spinal cord injury that left me a quadriplegic. During my rehabilitation, I met a fellow patient who was an artist. He encouraged me to try painting, but since I no longer had use of my hands, I was unable to hold the brush. We improvised a Velcro strap to hold the brushes to my hand and heavily assisted by him I attempted my first painting. The process was rather awkward and not very accurate, so I quickly lost interest.

 

In October, 2009, I decided to give mouth painting a try. I started out with a few episodes of Bob Ross's, "The Joy of Painting" series and one of his painting kits.  The first try was a disaster... I kept trying however, and surprisingly each attempt turned out better than the last.

 

I found other art instructors online including William Alexander, Michael Munton, Wilson Bickford and Jerry Yarnell, all of which have been a tremendous help. I currently paint mainly in acrylics and oils.

 

In March 2012 I became a student member of The Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, an international, for-profit Association that helps disabled artists that paint with their mouth or feet, meet their financial needs by reproducing and selling the artist's original artworks. It's been a great and rewarding experience so far.