Brian is married to Jen Parker, and together they started a blog called Strength of Love.
“People often ask me what inspired me to create art. That’s a hard question to answer, as I don’t really see myself as an artist.” Prior to his ALS diagnosis, Brian was an audio engineer and producer.
Brian mentioned that his decision to make art actually comes from boredom. “While creating shapes to make a drawing to communicate an idea to a friend, I realized there was so much I could create just using shapes.”
Jen said that one day, Brian sent her a drawing he did, and then they just kept coming. Brian makes beautiful artwork, using the only thing he can move, his eyes.
“The first designs were abstract pieces doing just that, taking small shapes and putting them together to create a design, and that evolved into using the shapes to create a larger object. It just took off from there. “Before I knew it, I’d done over a hundred designs!” said Brian.
Brian meticulously guides a virtual paintbrush by using the movement of his eyes on his Lenovo laptop with a Tobii PC Eye Mini attached. Brian also mentioned that he likes to use PaintDotNet, which is a free application, and Microsoft Paint3D, which comes with Windows.
“As hard as some days can be, I try and stick to what I’ve said for so long, which is that I just choose not to let ALS define me. I look for purpose and joy in each day”. And for Brian, that also means keeping things new and exciting.
Other exciting news that Brian shared with me is that he is working on music again. “I am currently producing an album with four other musicians. Living in the time of COVID has been a strange thing mentally, yet has shown how well we can adapt to technology and how well we can stay connected. It’s really quite amazing.”
“I hope to inspire at least one person daily. Life is hard yet our mindset can determine a lot of how easy or hard things can be.” Brain definitely has inspired me, and I hope that sharing his story will inspire you as well.
Learn more about the Parkers:
Blog: https://strengthoflove.org
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strengthoflove/
Brian’s Artwork:
