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Dysart artist featured in MDA art collection

By CENTRAL IOWA PRESS

DYSART - A painting by Dorothy "Dottie" Hunt of Dysart has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. Now in its 15th year, the collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Hunt's "My Dad and I" is a painting of a male African lion and its cub, with a tawny veldt and sunset backdrop. Hunt created it using a computer paint software program.

Formerly a longtime Arizona resident who now lives in a Dysart nursing home, Hunt, 65, expressed her original creativity in dress designs. She designed and made wedding dresses for many years, but also created beaded jewelry and stained glass paintings when she had full manual dexterity.

Hunt is affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, which affects parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement and cause muscles to become weak and then nonfunctional. She is now able to move only two fingers on one hand.

"We're deeply honored to welcome Dottie Hunt's work into the permanent MDA Art Collection," MDA President & CEO Gerald Weinberg said. "Her contribution to our collection will undoubtedly delight all who see it as it travels to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the collection."

The new addition by Hunt is on display at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz. and can be seen at www.mda.org/commprog/art/displayall.aspx.

Hunt's piece also will be included in MDA Art Collection traveling exhibits. The collection was established in 1992 to focus attention on the achievements of artists with disabilities and to emphasize that physical disability is no barrier to creativity.

The permanent collection comprises more than 335 works by artists ages 2 to 82 and represents all 50 states. Each artist is affected by one of the neuromuscular diseases in the MDA program.

MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains clinics for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at Younker Memorial Rehabilitation Center in Des Moines and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

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