Overcoming Adversity to Pursue Her Passion ~ Meet #Artist Mariam Pare #WATWB #Mouthpainter

Welcome to the “We are the World Blogfest” (#WATWB ). The #WATWB was inspired by a simple conversation about how all the negativity on social media was weighing on us. Wanting to make a difference we decided to try to do our part to infuse social media with all the good stories that are out there. We hope to share the stories that show kindness, compassion, hope, overcoming challenges and in general, the impressive resilience of the human spirit. For every dark, negative story out there, there is a positive, heartwarming story that will add some light and lift the human spirit. The last Friday of every month bloggers will share their stories led by five co-hosts, this month’s co-hosts are Lizbeth Hartz, Peter Nena, Shilpa Garg, Eric Lahti, and  Inderpreet Kaur Uppal. 

To learn more about #WATWB or to join us click here!

From when Mariam was young her passions always revolved around art and it was her dream to be an artist when she grew up.  This passion for creating art continued throughout her teenage years, and she began attending college for art.  She was focused on pursuing her dream when in a split second her life changed for good. In 1996, at the age of 20 years old, she became the innocent victim of gang gun violence. While stopped at a stop sign in the driver’s seat of a friend’s car, gunfire erupted on the adjacent sidewalk and a stray bullet went through the door and struck Mariam in her neck paralyzing her instantly and changing her life forever.

So began a new life for Mariam, she was now a quadriplegic and would be spending months, if not years, in rehabilitation, painfully having to relearn how to do everyday activities that like most people, she had previously taken for granted.  Now in a  wheelchair, she had to learn to manoeuvre throughout her day, fighting to do simple things. One of the more difficult things for Mariam was to learn new ways of holding things with fingers that did not grip. She learned to use her mouth for daily tasks that required precision. Greatly missing her art, when a therapist taught Mariam to hold a pencil in her mouth she began by learning to write her name, sparking a revelation that perhaps this would be a way for her to paint as well. This revelation exposed Mariam to a way to pursue her passion, determined to paint, she worked hard, became an artist and is enjoying a successful career.

Watch this to get a glimpse of Mariam’s incredible talent…

Watch to see her meeting with her favourite actor and fellow artist Pierce Brosnan:

Check out her website here: http://www.mariampare.com/

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

~Henry Ford