For popular member of the Mund-og Fodmalende Kunstnere (MFK), Ann Lund, the saying ‘life is a gift’ couldn’t be more appropriate. Since birth, Ann has been severely paralysed as a result of suffering from cerebral palsy and has spent her life in a wheelchair; however, this hasn’t stopped her. After a childhood filled with love and faith from her parents, she put her positive view of life into her paintings through the international self-help organisation, MFK, part of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (AMFPA).
“It was always a great passion of mine to paint, and growing up I always enjoyed painting all the beautiful things around me,” explained Ann Lund.
Many years later, Ann attended a conference in Budapest and saw a man on the train being lifted out of his wheelchair onto the platform. Ann continued, “People were walking past him smiling but I couldn’t see his face. This short meeting left a lasting impression on me. I discovered later when I met him at the conference that he could not speak, move or barely sit up in his wheelchair, but he could smile. The people who walked past him had not only met a regular smile – they had met an angel.”
For many years, this encounter affected and inspired Ann, reminding her that life is indeed a gift. Today, she puts all her energy and passion into the art she produces, as well as giving lectures to schools and associations on how she experiences life, and how her disability has helped her to focus on the positive aspects of her life. Ann is a mouth painter and is currently working from her workshop in Christianshavn, a suburb of Copenhagen. Originally trained as a social worker, she is now fully engaged in her work as an artist.
The Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists is a wholly owned, international self-help organisation of seriously disabled artists who take pride in earning their own living by painting with a paint brush held in their mouth or between their toes. A panel of senior AMFPA artists select from the collection of painted images created by Danish artists and their fellow artists from around the world. These chosen images are then reproduced and sold to the general public as cards and calendars, benefitting the AMFPA’s more than 800 artists in over 75 countries worldwide.
Contact:
Mund-og Fodmalende Kunstnere
Website: http://www.mfk.dk.