California abstract impressionist with CP makes a statement through her art

From The Marin Independent Journal in California:

Mia Brown (pictured) has not had an easy time of it. Born with cerebral palsy, she cannot walk or use her arms. She speaks with great difficulty, straining to make herself understood. But despite the hardships she's endured, including a recent life-threatening bout with pneumonia, her soft brown eyes are clear and bright and her smile radiates what everyone agrees is nothing short of pure joy.

"She's a wonderful human being," said Chris Bonfiglio, executive director and co-founder of Casa Allegra Community Services, a Marin nonprofit agency for the developmentally disabled. "She makes you feel good just being around her. She's very, very patient and teaches us things all the time. She's wise beyond her 43 years."

Founded in 1975, Casa Allegra is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. It began with just five clients, and now, some four generations later, supports 48 people with developmental disabilities, including Brown, one of its success stories.

As far back as she can remember, Brown has seen herself as an artist, not as a disabled person. She started painting at the National Institute of Art & Disabilities in Richmond when she was 18. Because she can't use her hands, she learned to paint with a "head wand" - a brush attached to a helmet that allows her to manipulate the paint with movements of her head and neck.

"She's had a passion for art forever and ever," Bonfiglio said. "She not a woman with a disability who paints. She's an artist who just happens to have a
disability."

Brown works in an abstract impressionist style characterized by bold strokes and bright colors. Her pieces have such fanciful titles as "Apricot Sundown," "Jelly Fish," "Berries & Cream" and "Carousel." She had a small painting in this year's Marin County Fair that was called "Brilliance."

"Her personality comes out in the vibrant colors she uses," Bonfiglio said.

Not just a hobbyist, Brown creates vivid canvases, bookmarks, scarves and greeting cards that she sells under the brand name "Downtown Mia Brown" through Casa Allegra's Income Opportunities Unlimited (IOU) program.

"It's a whole lot of work," she joked, her words interpreted by her full-time caregiver, 40-year-old Wendy Thomas, who added that "Mia has wanted to get her paintings out there for a very long time."

With support from Casa Allegra and from Social Security income, Brown lives in Novato with Thomas, who tends to most of her needs, including helping her with her art materials. But Brown chooses the colors and creates the patterns and designs by herself.

"Everything in her life is done for her, but this is one thing Mia does on her own," Thomas explained. "It's the one thing in her life she has control over."

Brown is one of more than a dozen Casa Allegra clients who are involved in IOU, either with their own small business or as members of a business cooperative. Some are exploring options for self-employment.

With a business plan and a lot of hope and enthusiasm, Brown launched her art venture with a successful show and open house at Casa Allegra this past December. Winning a blue ribbon for one of her acrylic paintings at last year's Marin County Fair gave her instant credibility, proving that she was not an artistic novelty.

But just as she was getting her enterprise off the ground, she was stricken by a virus that developed into a severe case of pneumonia. Dangerously ill, she was on a respirator for 10 days and hospitalized for three months.

"But Mia had gotten to the point in her life when her dream was actually coming true, so I knew she was going to fight to get well," Thomas said. "She really loves life."

As she recovers, Brown has returned to painting several times a week at Casa Allegra's Terra Linda offices. She's joined the Marin Arts Council, shown her work at open studios and will have a booth at a Thursday morning Farmers Market at the Civic Center in San Rafael. Recognizing her talent, people donated money for a new wheelchair that allows her to paint more comfortably. And Casa Allegra is helping her get a machine that will enable her to speak more clearly.

On one recent morning, she began painting a new series of bookmarks, each one an original, that she sells for $5 each. She painted 100 in the first batch and sold every one.

Asked how she feel when she paints, she answered with one word that needed no interpretation. "Happy," she said, smiling her trademark smile.