TWO PAINTINGS BY YONKERS WRITER/ARTIST ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

TUCSON, Ariz., September 10, 2001 - A pair of opaque watercolor paintings by William M. Ross of Yonkers, N.Y., have been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. The Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

"Twilight in Paradise" by William M. Ross

Ross's "Twilight in Paradise" depicts a lone cowboy riding in a hilly range, watching wild horses in the distance. "Heaven on a Summer Night" depicts America's great summer pastime — a baseball game — with imagery so vivid one can almost hear the crack of the bat.

Ross, 64, is affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), a progressive disease that causes the disintegration of motor neurons, resulting eventually in the weakening of virtually all voluntary muscles.

Ross has been painting for many years, having attended the High School of Industrial Art (now known as Art and Design). Ross has also written two plays that were produced at New York City's Royal Court Repertory on 55th Street in Manhattan and a children's novel titled "The Ticket to Harmony." Ross is a retired high school teacher who was profiled on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon this past Labor Day weekend on WWOR-TV, Channel 9.

"Heaven on a Summer Night" by William M. Ross

"We're honored to have such wonderfully evocative paintings by Bill Ross in the permanent MDA Art Collection," said MDA President Robert Ross (no relation). "His contributions to our Collection will undoubtedly delight all who see them as they travel to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection."

The new additions by Ross will be exhibited at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and 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 currently comprises more than 260 works by artists ages 2 to 82 and represents 48 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; University of California-Berkeley and Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Duluth Art Institute; Capitol 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 clinics for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital and Medical Center and at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, N.Y. The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.