"Budgie in a Pear Tree"
By Karen Wheeler
The life of Karen Wheeler, 54, has been one ceaseless battle against muscular dystrophy. Art, she says, helps her cope. "It's my one voice of independence," says the wheelchair-bound Kansas native, who picked up her first brush at age 4. "Nobody can help me with this stuff. I need help with almost everything else." Wheeler's ornament stars Spanky, her 8-year-old parakeet (or, as they say in Britain, "budgie"). Wheeler recently noticed how similar Spanky's shape was to a pear's. "I've done other paintings with him," Wheeler says. "I prefer painting humorous things, because if I can generate positivity by what I do, it reflects in how I feel."