4 Artists with Disabilities Share Their Stories and Tips

We asked four talented artists, Danelle Malan, Louisa Band, Malin Danngärde and Armani Shepherd, how creating art has positively impacted their lives as people with a disability or chronic illness. Continue reading to meet them!

“I have always loved patterns, especially the challenge of making something tile seamlessly. As a child I would spend hours just looking at patterns on posters, curtains, bedding and more, trying to figure out where the pattern started and stopped. There is something very soothing about this to me. I decided to try my hand at it some years ago, and found that I quite enjoyed the challenge, so here we are!”

“My process starts in traditional media. I usually start with watercolour, coloured pencil and/or ink with a brush or dip pen. Sometimes I look at that work and think, wow, this would make a really interesting pattern! Other times I start a design expressly to make a pattern, usually if my brain has become preoccupied with the concept and I need to put it somewhere to get it out of my head. My galaxy style designs, such as my bestseller, Nebulicious, I make entirely in Adobe Photoshop using custom brushes. Doing it there is much easier than doing it traditionally, as I can tweak the various layers to ensure a more seamless tiling experience.

My traditional media work gets scanned in and edited in Photoshop. Sometimes only a few tweaks are needed. I may add colour, and sometimes I can’t decide on a single iteration of the pattern, so I make two or three different versions and upload all of them. Eventually, either the market will tell me which one is best, or I will finally make up my own mind and either remove some of the designs or leave them as-is. I am always trying to think of the buyer and what they might want.”

“My physical disability is that my neck vertebrae have shifted in a way referred to as “arthritic changes.” I am not sure why it happened. But the result is that it presses on an important spinal nerve, causing weakness, pain and some atrophy in my dominant hand (right). It’s slowly gotten worse over the years, so I have had to change some habits. I have also switched to my non-dominant hand for many things, including PC mouse use.

I’ve put a really concerted effort into teaching my non-dominant hand to draw, with some success. Several of the designs in my Spoonflower shop were made using art drawn and edited purely by my non-dominant hand, and I am proud of this.

The unexpected outcome of training my non-dominant hand is that it creates a unique line quality, distinct from my dominant hand. It’s not better or worse, just different. It’s given me a greater appreciation for the lower pain days where I can draw, and it has made me more purposeful in what I choose to draw. When you only have a certain amount of “hand energy”, you need to spend it wisely. Painting is less strenuous on my hand, which is why I fell back in love with it in my late 20s.

Another affect this disability has had is that I dive into drawing straight in brush pen and ink, without doing a pencil sketch beforehand. It’s a fun challenge, and your inner critic stops being quite as critical because making mistakes boldly and confidently is the name of the game when you work directly in ink. It’s quite liberating.

It’s the same thing when you paint and draw with your non-dominant hand. Your expectations are less fixed, and you may even surprise yourself with how well you are able to represent your concept with your non-dominant hand, because you are observing and making marks with greater focus than before.”

“It’s important to figure out the root cause of your pain. It took years of seeing various health professionals to finally get an X-ray and MRI to see that it was a compressed nerve as opposed to carpal tunnel. When you know what causes it, you can do research and work to try and ease the symptoms.

You may feel like grind culture will not catch up to you if you are in your late teens or early twenties. But it will, and it is never worth it. Take breaks. Move your body as much as you can, take frequent stretch breaks, sleep enough, hydrate enough and eat enough. Say no to clients who make the pit of your stomach fall out when you see their name in your inbox.

I also want to address the emotional side of this disability.

For me, personally, it’s been a traumatic journey to get to the bottom of what was going on. My symptoms came on slowly and I was in denial for years. I have had to re-examine my entire identity. Before, it was so wrapped up in my creative output that I saw my failure to pump out highly polished works of art daily, weekly or even monthly as a reflection on my worth as a person. It is not. Your creative output may slow or even stop when you have a lot of pain, but that does not make you worth less and it does not negate your past work or achievements.

It’s very difficult to not conflate your worth with your creative output when art is your whole life, and you, like me, never had a plan B. It’s humbling, heartbreaking and so, so hard, and you may feel like nothing in life will ever be good again. However, it is possible to work through this and I have faith in you.

Learning to be kind to yourself is so important in these vulnerable spaces where you feel like your body has sabotaged your career and abilities. But please remember that you are still an artist even if you do other work to generate income and draw on the side. You are still an artist if your output slows to a crawl, or your lines are wobbly, or you have pain and are tired. And you are still a human worth loving, and you are still deserving of friendship and kindness and happiness and human rights. The people in your life likely aren’t just there because you can draw. Allow them to love you, even if you struggle to love yourself.”

“I started to draw when I was a little child. My grandma and I used to draw a lot together and she taught me most of the skills I have today. When I was three years old, I could no longer hold the pen in my hand, so she came up with the idea to try to draw with my mouth. Probably the best idea she ever had.

I kept drawing throughout the years and became more and more “professional”. When I turned 20, I asked a children’s hospital in Hamburg if I could hang a few of my paintings on the walls to make it look a little cozier and entertaining for the children and their parents. I used to spend a lot of time in that hospital when I was a child, which is the reason I knew that different artists could present their pictures in the halls. It was a huge honor for me to be able to present my artwork there.”

“I draw with my mouth using a stylus on my iPad. I use an app for designers and architects called Concepts. A few years ago, I drew on canvas but that is really complicated for me, because there always has to be a person to assist me. There needs to be somebody who changes the position of the canvas so I can reach every corner of it. On top of that, somebody needed to give me the different colors. It is totally different with my iPad because I can work on my own. When I finish the painting it gets printed on canvas, poster or glass.”

“My disability has shown me a lot of different perspectives. That is something that you can probably see in my work as an artist. I don’t even know if I would draw if I could move my arms. Perhaps I would do other activities and my creative side would have never been discovered.”

“Always focus on your abilities and never on your disabilities. There are so many different parts of your body that might work perfectly well. You don’t need your hands to create art. Creativity starts in your heart and soul. Never let any person tell you that you won’t be an accomplished artist because of the way your body works.

If you want to make art, you just have to start. Once you dare to share your art with the world, I promise you it will feel amazing. Ask yourself “what am I afraid of?” Most people regret the things they didn’t do, not the things they did do. As long as you love what you do and you do it with all of your heart it will work out. Never focus on the things you can’t do. Focus on what you can do.”

“I started getting into surface pattern design by following a few Skillshare teachers who had classes on making seamless repeat patterns. Mainly fellow Spoonflower artists Jennifer Nichols, Liz Kohler Brown and Maja Faber. I found the process of creating my own patterns very fun and started making my own pattern collections soon thereafter.”

“I usually start by finding some sort of inspiration, either in real life or online. Pinterest is a great source of inspiration. I then make a mood board, find a color palette I like and start sketching out my ideas.

I make my patterns on the iPad, using either Procreate or Affinity Designer, depending on how I want my pattern to look. Affinity is a vector program, which is scalable and Procreate has a bunch of amazing brushes and textures. Both are great for making surface design patterns.

When a pattern is done, I usually try out a few different color palettes to see which one I like the best!”

“When I feel like life is hard, my art is an escape. Focusing on creating makes my disabilities feel easier to handle, and I can process my sensory overload and confusing social interactions better.

My autism and having art as a special interest give me a unique way of following my passion and creativity, which is amazing. This keeps me creating new pieces and following new passions.

With my ADHD comes an ability to hyperfocus on what I’m passionate about, which makes me create a lot in short time bursts. I also get a lot of different skills and focus on different things to create, depending on where my focus lies for the moment.”

“What I struggle with the most is following through. I have so many ideas, all the time, and it’s hard to narrow that down. With big projects, I have a problem with making the whole project, which means that I always have a bunch of half-finished projects. What I’ve found works is to have one place to write all things down. Try to break a big project into smaller pieces and work on one small piece at a time.

I also try to not put so much pressure on myself. My art journey may look a bit different than others, and that is okay. I have days where it feels impossible to create, and other days where I can create anything.

Make sure to celebrate even the smallest milestone. It’s easy to get discouraged, to feel like your art is not good enough, but it is because you made it.

I would also encourage anyone to make sure to take breaks. Sometimes when you hyperfocus, it’s easy to forget about your basic needs. So, take breaks, eat and sleep enough and take care of yourself!”

“I had a chronic illness prior to long Covid which hit me hard in 2020. I became bedridden for months, in isolation with no energy to read or interact. My left side became weak and dropped down and I had mobility issues. I could no longer work as a University lecturer or play musical instruments. I felt my life was over. It was at this point I started to doodle.

My son helped me with the pen lids as they were too tight to take off. I tried to colour in ‘the flower of life’ without going over the edges. It lifted my spirits to see it complete. I then determined to draw one line against a ruler until eventually I managed 231 lines in a circle (over several days!) This became one of my first designs, Mosaic 231. I felt fractured and it reflected in the pattern, but despite being fractured it was whole.

It was at this point I remembered a lady I met decades back who designed surface patterns, then I found Spoonflower. I wondered if I would ever be ‘good enough’ to design fabric and wallpaper. I enjoyed creating despite the imperfections. My academic research had previously touched on music and healing while embracing Cymatics, the study of visible effects of sound and vibration. I needed all the healing I could acquire and so I applied the latter to my art. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. An ongoing journey which has resulted in switching musicianship for surface pattern design.”

“I incorporate Cymatics into my surface pattern design (inspired by my former research as an ethnomusicologist). Every vibration, sound and colour has its own frequency which produces a unique geometric pattern. My creative process is an ongoing work in progress with the goal to not only positively transform and heal myself but to impart deeper healing to anyone who happens to purchase my designs.

I use a free editor called Photopea. To relax I doodle in acrylics, paint or pencil, take a photo using my phone and upload to Photopea. I also fuse geometry with cultural influences, nature and everyday textures to create designs. Sometimes it becomes a simple beige and other times an interwoven mosaic.”

“The illness has impacted my ability to perform and play musical instruments or participate in music therapy. As such, it’s a blessing to have found surface pattern design as an alternative healing tool for myself. Whilst I may no longer have enough lung capacity to improvise on the saxophone, I can now begin to embrace geometry, patterns and design. This disability subsequently led me to Spoonflower which has provided me with a community of warmth and support.

My chronic illness impacts my art both positively and negatively. For example, pain can help you channel and focus more which often manifests some surprising designs. I might still struggle to chop an onion but when designing I feel uninhibited and free. I might not be integrated back into society yet, but art connects me to others, particularly if someone likes or purchases a design. I’m learning to go with the flow and listen. Who we interact with, listen to and think about impacts our art and emotions. If we come from a place of deep transformation, then the art will transform and hopefully bring healing and comfort to others.”

“Acceptance. It can be challenging to create if in pain. Listen to your body and embrace the flow.

Don’t beat yourself up thinking you aren’t good enough (which can lead to procrastination). This journey has taught me to ease up from being a perfectionist. Ironically, it’s the designs you may feel aren’t good enough which could end up selling! To have something which you almost trashed sell and be transformed into a beautiful decoupage or soft furnishing is a lesson in itself.

If you are still in isolation and unable to get out and about, remember you are not alone. For those who have mystery illnesses with many symptoms, fear not. Endure and allow the transformation to redirect; you will rise like the phoenix out of the ashes. Take each day at a time and ignore any naysayers. Any mourning (whether it be for a limb, health, former career or other) will eventually turn into joy.”