Featured Member: Missy Milton

DINET member name:  Missy Milton
Missy's home town:   Fayetteville, AR
Diagnosis:  Dysautonomia (POTS & NCS)
website: https://www.melissamiltonart.com/

In Missy’s words…….

Living with dysautonomia requires me to spend many chunks of hours laying down. Laying down is a necessary tool for regulating my roller coaster blood pressure. After about a year of spending so much time being “stuck horizontal” a dreadful, negative boredom ensued.  I decided to start painting again as a fun way to pass the time when I can’t move about. Before my illness, It had been over 30 years since I had painted but it came back to me quickly.

I use magnetized paint brushes and pencil on an ipad with an inexpensive (under $10) painting software.  Creating digital art this way, instead of traditional paintings, keeps me from worrying about spilling paint on my bed or sofa.

Nowadays, when I’m laying down I create artistically. I’ve started composing music recently and I just launched my website which includes my portfolio of art and a new blog.  When I’m able to sit up and/or move about, I do more day-to-day things, such as water the plants or fold the laundry.  The combination of the day-to-day  activities and my creative projects, strikes a balance in my life which, for me, creates cheerful contentment. My body may malfunction in certain ways, but I feel whole.
Sincerely,
Missy Milton

At left:  "Night Flowers" Right "That time I found a fairy" 

More about Missy......Missy’s attitude towards her life and her illness are evident in this quote she sent in with her application 

Quote

“My goal is to stress the positivity and humor that is possible with a disability, more than emphasizing the particular disease that I live with”

Missy’s new website is her latest creation.  It includes Missy’s art portfolio and her newly started blog. A blog that her adult children have encouraged her to write for a few years. It also includes a recording of her original music. Be sure to check out the great story she tells about her grandmother in the About Us section. Missy’s painting “Water Freedom”, featured here, is enjoying success in the 2017 Rare Artist Contest - a contest for artists with rare diseases. http://m.heyo.com/198fe2  Be sure to vote while you're there! 

Missy can be reached by email through her site at https://www.melissamiltonart.com/contact-1/