Lydia Emily, Lennlee Keep
Description
The Art of Hope: The Life and Work Of Lydia Emily
Lydia Emily is hope in human form.
She's an artist, a rock star, an activist, and the mother of 2 ch
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ildren. Her life seems charmed and exciting, but it has been the opposite. She's had to fight for her children, political beliefs, and life. In 2009 she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer. In 2010 she was declared cancer-free and thought the worst was behind her.
But in 2012, she was diagnosed with an aggressive, rapidly progressing form of Multiple Sclerosis. Lydia Emily is fighting the illness, but she knows it's a battle she will not win. MS has left her completely blind in her left eye. She's lost the feeling in the left side of her body. She can no longer hold a paintbrush because of tremors and pain in her hands. So she finds ways to win these small battles. She adorns her blinded eye with an eyepatch. She decorates her cane and thinks up names and color schemes for her wheelchair, Ellie. She uses her kid's glittery pink shoelaces and ties paintbrushes to her hand so that she can continue painting. But the worst thing that MS has taken is her memories. "I forget books and memes. Much to my husband's delight, he can tell me the same joke today and tomorrow, and I will always laugh because I never remember the punchline." Lydia Emily isn't sick and miserable; she's sick and hilarious.
She uses her illness to share the stories of the millions of patients like her, testifying before congress about the out-of-control pricing of MS drugs and price gouging by big pharma. She's been a speaker for the MS society and created a series of murals all over the country to bring awareness and hope to people with MS.
If that sounds like a lot, that's because it is.
Lydia Emily is what not giving up looks like.
She was once a homeless teenager and graffiti artist living on the streets of Los Angeles. Now, she is an internationally renowned fine artist and muralist. Lydia Emily has created murals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Oakland, Saint Thomas USVI, Washington DC, Louisville, Boston, and Austin. Her fine art has been shown at the Museum Of Latin American Art, LALAGallery, La Luz De Jesus Gallery LA, Red Bull Gallery, Scope Gallery Miami, Lab Art Gallery Los Angeles, ArtShare LA Gallery, and Paint Berlin Germany. Pop-up Galleries in Washington DC, Milan, Italy, and Haiti. Private collectors include Bob Dole and the Winston Churchill Family.
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