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Alex Cabrero ReportingYou could probably paint a halfway decent picture if you had to. But how well would you do if you couldn't use your hands? One young Utah woman has a "hands-off" approach to her art because she has no choice.
Robyn Harris has seen thousands of paintings from students trying to get it right. But never before has she seen something like this. It’s not what's done, but how it's done.
Robyn Harris: “She loves to paint, and it’s not going to stop her just because she has to do it all with her mouth.”
Megan Rees is that kind of person you remember your whole life, not because she's in a wheelchair, but because of how she refuses to let it keep her down.
Megan Rees, Riverton Junior: “Nothing will stop me from doing anything.”
Nothing... not even cerebral palsy.
Megan Rees: “Some people have it harder than me. Some can’t talk.”
Imagine being in Megan's position and feeling sorry for others.
Brittany Mitchell, Megan's Best Friend: “People think because she’s handicapped and in a wheelchair she doesn’t know things. She’s really smart.”
Smart enough for a 4.0 grade point average, and smart enough to know how others look at her as she's going down the hall.
Megan Rees: “They don’t have to be scared of me.”
High school can be tough that way. But once Megan showed what she can do with a paintbrush, others began to notice the girl behind the smile.
Robyn Harris: “They’ll come in here and peek and say, ‘Gosh Megan! You paint better than I’m doing. And I’m using my hands!’”
You should try it -- try painting using just your teeth to hold the brush.
Robyn Harris: “It disintegrates after times, and it splinters. And we’re still trying to be creative on how to make it taste better.”
But for her, taste is just a small thing to overcome, just like cerebral palsy.
Megan says she'd like to go to the University of Utah and become an artist.
