Grife Gallery

Join him as he embarks on a journey to uncover his identity as an empowered artist. His paintings vividly convey the fresh perspective of trichromacy and express his creative healing process as a survivor of traumatic brain injury.

I never painted a single day in my life until after my brain aneurysm, about 15 years ago. In those early years, my focus was on recovery — learning to speak and communicate again, which was the hardest part, along with coping with the loss of motor function in my right arm.

Three or four years later, doctors discovered that I have tetrachromacy — a rare condition that allows me to perceive colors differently. At the time, I didn’t think much about it, but it would eventually shape how I see and create.

About five years ago, I mentioned to a close friend and professor that I wanted to try painting. She encouraged me to attend a beginner’s class at a studio called Design by Wine, where you drink wine and learn to paint.

I had never held a paintbrush before. Sitting in the front row with my easel, I quickly realized how different my process would be. Everyone around me used both hands to squeeze paint onto their palettes, while I struggled to keep up. I had to set my palette on the ground, squeeze paints with my left hand, and bend down each time to load my brush.

It was clumsy, frustrating, and slow. But that first class changed everything. Even though I struggled, something inside me opened up. I realized I could paint — not the way others did, but in my own way. That discovery began my journey as an artist.