ARTWORK BY ILLINOIS ARTIST
ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION
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"Mountain View" |
TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 23, 2004 – A painting by artist
David L. Emmert of Moline, Ill., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy
Association’s Art
Collection. Now in its 13th year, the Collection features artwork
by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.
“Mountain View” is an oil painting which captures a contrast
of bright blue skies and bright green trees alongside a waterfall. Emmert
created the work after he was found to have amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Emmert received a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University
and taught junior high school art for 13 years. Before he retired, Emmert
also designed layouts for landscape projects.
Emmert, 66, received a diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s
disease, in 1996. A disease of the parts of the nervous system that
control voluntary muscle movement, ALS causes muscles to become weak
and then nonfunctional.
In a 1999 interview, Emmert said he began painting again at the suggestion
of a family friend as a way to fight his despair about having ALS.
He and his wife, Judie, have three children and six grandchildren.
“We welcome David Emmert’s work into the permanent MDA Art
Collection,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “His
contribution to our Collection will undoubtedly captivate all who see
it as it travels to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits
of the Collection.”
The new addition by Emmert will be displayed at MDA’s national
headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.,. 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 comprises more than 300 works by artists aged
2 to 82 and represents all 50 states.
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; JFK Center at Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, Tenn.; Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Duluth Art
Institute; Capital 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 235 clinics nationwide, including one at Trinity Outpatient
Rehabilitation in East Moline, Ill.
The Association’s programs are funded almost entirely by individual
private contributors.
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