I like to work at night. You hear the city sounds and you know there's an energy out there. That's one of the reasons I came to New York."

Milda Vizbar left Montreal to come to New York as a young art student partly because of the wealth of resources and culture available to artists in New York, partly to strike out on her own and partly from sheer instinct.

"I listen to my intuitive self," Vizbar says. "It had been telling me since I was very young to leave home."

Today, Vizbar is an award-winning artist and designer whose lively and colorful paintings have been displayed in numerous one-woman shows and group exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

She's known for her humorous illustrations for children's books as well as for being an accomplished commercial artist and designer who's developed packaging and logos for high-profile clients in the cosmetics industry such as Revlon and Estee Lauder.

A number of her creative works now reside in the MDA Art Collection, which focuses exclusively on the works of artists affected by neuromuscular diseases. Vizbar has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a disorder affecting the peripheral nerves operating the muscles in the legs and lower arms. She walks unassisted but must concentrate closely on each step. Occasionally she uses a wheelchair.

HOLIDAY MESSAGES

A recent addition to MDA's collection is Vizbar's jubilant "Sing Out!" This mixed media painting, prominently featured in the 1999 MDA Holiday Wishes card collection and shown on the cover of this magazine, depicts three children going holiday caroling in the snow, one of them a wheelchair user.

Over the years, Vizbar encountered requests from commercial clients that she not depict children showing any sign of physical imperfection. "I've done a great deal of children's illustration, and for a long time people would not even accept a child with glasses," she recalls.

Today, she still has lingering worries that some people might not be accepting of the casual incorporation of disability imagery in pictures like "Sing Out!"

"But then the other part of me says, hey, we're here, and we have every right to be here, and some of us are getting around better than people on two healthy legs."

Vizbar has contributed other holiday-themed artworks to the MDA Art Collection, including a picture of angels circling a Christmas tree titled "Star Team" and a Little Drummer Boy-inspired image called "Celebrate the Day." She's also contributed non-holiday images, including a graphite self-portrait.

THE ARTIST'S JOURNEY

Vizbar was born in Canada, and had physical difficulties from early childhood, although her CMT wouldn't be diagnosed until well into adulthood. "I didn't walk until I was 3 years old. I learned to ride a bicycle; I was able to get around that way. However, I couldn't keep up with the other kids when they were walking and running."

Vizbar's graphite "Self-Portrait" is one of a number of her works included in the MDA Art Collection.

She thinks that the solitude she experienced as a youngster helped foster her sensibility as an artist. "When you have any kind of disability you become very strong," she says. "You adapt, and you begin to use your intuitive abilities. I wanted to fly, to run, to keep up with the other kids. To me, running was being able to put things on paper."

At age 8, she began taking art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. One of the instructors was a well-known painter and designer.

"As children, we were fascinated by the fact that he only had one leg," Vizbar recalls. "We thought he was rather magical and other-worldly, because, even though he had one leg, he was remarkable in his ability to function. We had enormous respect for him."

As Vizbar developed as an artist, she became familiar with a variety of media, including watercolors, oils, pen and ink, clay, plastics and fabricated metals.

Upon her arrival in New York, Vizbar began studying at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She eventually earned her bachelor of fine arts at Pratt and ended up teaching there for 16 years. Her time would be split among teaching design, doing commercial work, pursuing her non-commercial artwork and other interests.

AESTHETICS COMBINED WITH FUNCTION

Vizbar became involved with a program at Pratt called CADRE—Center for Advanced Design Research. CADRE focuses on universal design, a movement advocating the notion that all design and architecture should incorporate accessibility and ease of use as standard features that can benefit everyone.

"CADRE's focus is on universal design, and whenever we do a conference, we emphasize that the general population is just temporarily able-bodied, because as people grow older they lose function," Vizbar says.

She thinks progress is being made in terms of public accessibility, although she still can't use the subway or buses in New York. "I can't stand that long, and people don't always give up a seat."

She believes there's one area in particular in which there is still a long way to go: medical equipment.

"Right now, when you look at some of the assistive devices, they're quite intimidating and overpowering," she says. "We need to combine function and aesthetics. It could mean making them more fun, more streamlined, using color.

"For a wheelchair, for example, the design should let you know that a wheelchair can be an adventure, because it's a whole new form of transportation. I feel that, if you can use something, you should be proud of the fact that you can use it, that you have enough courage to say, look, I'm here, I'm using it, let's go on with life. It has less to do with disability or ability than with being a human being."

FINDING NEW METHODS

Vizbar has had to modify and adapt her work methods due to loss of strength and dexterity caused by CMT.

"I can no longer use an easel, which is distressing to me," she says. "I have to put things at a lower level, at elbow height."

Vizbar has done everything from using hand braces that provide more strength to crafting large spongy handles onto her paintbrushes for a better grip.

"I have to be very conscious of not working too long at a stretch because this causes all kinds of subsequent problems, fatigue and muscle weakness and so on," she says. "I overdo. I tend to push it to the limit."

In the end, she feels the physical difficulties aren't significant. "I feel very strongly that I work not with my hands but with my spirit, and with my mind."

Right now she's facing another practical difficulty artists sometimes encounter. "I've lost my studio space. I'm going crazy! I need a place to work, some space here in New York that's reasonable."

STAIRS AS A METAPHOR FOR LIFE

"I feel very strongly that I work not with my hands but with my spirit, and with my mind," says Vizbar.

Vizbar enjoys using humor in her work. "I think life is absurd, and humor is what keeps us going and connected to each other."

However, some of her artwork is quite serious. She's undertaken a series of paintings incorporating stairways as a central visual motif. Stairs are a potent metaphor for Vizbar.

"Stairs are overwhelming to me," she says. "They're one of the greatest barriers for anybody who has mobility problems, and particularly myself now."

The paintings don't include figures, although she might consider incorporating them at some stage. "Right now, it's the spirit of the individual that I'm showing."

In recent years, she's started receiving Social Security disability insurance benefits. This has been a great help because the progression of her CMT made it virtually impossible for her to get to the four classes she was teaching, to travel around town carrying her portfolio and to visit clients for her commercial work.

Now she has placed the focus on her artistic work. "I'm more satisfied with my life than I've ever been, because I'm doing the work I've wanted to do all my life."

MDA ART COLLECTION

Vizbar is deeply cognizant of the importance of the MDA Art Collection, which she thinks provides much-needed recognition of the gifts of people with disabilities.

The collection was established in 1992 and now features more than 200 pieces of art created by more than 300 artists ages 2 to 82, all affected by neuromuscular diseases. About 1.5 million people have seen the artworks in the collection, which travel to museums and galleries across the country.

The collection has a permanent home in the corridors of MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz. For more information, call (800) 527-1717 or visit the Art Collection area on MDA's Web site (www.mda.org).

SOARING BEYOND BOUNDARIES

"People with disabilities need to be seen, to be valued as human beings, and to be perceived beyond the wheelchairs and the crutches," Vizbar says. "They have so much to give to society. They come from another depth. They've experienced more, they've thought about things more, sometimes because they've been alone more.

"We all have the need to soar, to go beyond ourselves, and every artist, particularly those with disabilities, needs this freedom to go beyond their bodies, their physical beings.

"When this happens, one transcends that whole notion of being immobilized in a chair, of not being able to run in the sand on a beach, or go up those stairs which are just insurmountable. Somehow, through our art, we can overcome all of these barriers, and discover ways of achieving higher levels in our souls."