Warren man battles back from drugs, mental illness to become wheelchair artist

WARREN

Jeff Sanders uses his wheelchair to express himself and help others at the same time.

Sanders created two large paintings Thursday at the Warren Family Mission, using his wheelchair as a paintbrush. His stepfather, Dave Wood of Cortland, either coats the wheels with acrylic paint and Sanders rolls over the canvas or Sanders takes the Jackson Pollock approach, flinging paint onto the canvas and then rolling through it.

He hopes to display the paintings somewhere the public may see them, then sell them and donate the money to the mission.

One he calls “Purple Majesty” bears the mottos, “Appeal to Heaven” and “Don’t Tread on Me.” The other he calls “America the Beautiful” for its red, white and blue hues.

Growing up, Sanders battled drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness, getting arrested in Florida, Alabama and Ohio. He was in and out of rehabilitation facilities and youth detention centers.

At 20, Sanders jumped out of a window in a hospital, fleeing from hospital security. He broke his neck and both arms, and woke up in a hospital unable to walk.

He spent several months in the hospital and moved in with his mother, Judy Wood.

“I was in diapers, and she quit her job to take care of me,” Sanders said.

He got clean and sober, found God, earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees, became a counselor, got a job and got off of Social Security disability.

Read the rest of his story in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.