Who am I?

It all started when I was recovering from a wicked bad illness that wrecked the nerves in my face and inside my right ear. Overnight, I had a disability.

It’s called, Trigeminal Neuralgia and is a rare nerve condition that shingles can cause. I lived every minute of every day in excruciating pain because the nerve endings were exposed in my face and right ear. Smiling hurt, speaking—when I could—hurt. Brushing the hair away from my face was unbearable. Cold air on my face from opening the freezer door hurt. High-pitched sounds even hurt.

I became a shut in

My cat Luna with a Flumeer. She is part of the Tuxie Twins, Genghis & Luna. Photograph by S.M. Teal, Copyright 2020.

After a year under the care of some of the best doctors in the world at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, they couldn’t say how long it was going to last.

I had to restart my life. But how?

About a year later, my nerves started to rebuild their myelin sheaths and the pain started to recede. I went back to college. What could I do to work in a quiet environment? Become a librarian? An archivist? Maybe that might work? I started teaching myself how to use my right hand and hold a paintbrush again. Finally, I started painting and sculpting and art became my solace.

While working on my degree, I got a part-time job in the Adaptive Technology Center at my university. There, I met other students living with disabilities. I met all kinds of people. People of different ethnicities, ages, and genders. I met students who were living with blindness. I worked with veterans, people who had been in accidents, people born with accessibility needs and needed guide dogs. We all helped each other. The ATC made me feel welcomed.

But many of my friends could not see my art.

I had always been an artist. Learning how to use my right hand again to hold a paintbrush was one of the hardest things I had ever done. Meeting all these new people, people with disabilities far more intense than my own, made me rethink art. It isn’t all about making art with more texture and form—the story is the most important part. Imagination is powerful.

Wicked Little Beasties

were born!