For four years after my stroke, I didn’t paint.

Before then, painting had been an important part of my life. I worked primarily in oils, creating portraits and other paintings with my right hand. When I could no longer use that hand the way I once had, I couldn’t imagine how I would return to something I loved.

I told myself I’d already been a successful artist. I didn’t need to paint again. But imagining a life without painting was one thing. Picking up a brush again was another.

The possibility of painting again began to feel real when the nonprofit I attended started planning its fall gala. Conversations with my therapist about creating a painting for the event stirred an interest I hadn’t felt in years.

And so, during a therapy session, with my arm supported and a brush secured between my fingers, I began painting my therapist’s portrait.

What happened during that hour surprised both of us — for very different reasons.

In this episode of Return to Myself, I share the challenges, adaptations, and unexpected discoveries that helped me find my way back to painting—and what that experience taught me about creativity and physical recovery.

There was so much I had to learn to do differently. But as the portrait took shape, I began to recognize something familiar: the artist in me was still there.

Closing music: “Classical 2” by Jonny S., courtesy of Mixkit.