Lila Graves

If laughter is the best medicine, then Lila Graves is surely a healer. Her whimsical, child-like characters soar through the air on the backs of bumblebees; dance naked around the gumball machine; and ride pink flamingos into the sunset. These paintings will make you smile. They will make you laugh. They will cure what ails you.

In fact, here is the powerful story of painter/healer, Lila Graves: When she was 25 years old, Lila was diagnosed with melanoma and given 6 months to live. She underwent surgery immediately and began an experimental course of immunotherapy. It was all the doctors could offer, and it wasn't much. Six months came and went, though, and Lila decided to go to Mexico before she died despite the fact that x-rays revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs and liver.

Once in San Miguel, she resolved to paint until her life ended, and to become an angel on earth before she was called to be an angel in heaven. She made a pair of wings out of palm fronds and a feather boa, put them on and wore them non-stop. She wore them to the market. She wore them to restaurants. She wore them when she painted in the cobbled squares and streets of San Miguel. She wore them every day for two months and the people of San Miguel called her "Guadalupe" after the virgin saint whose halo looked like palm frond wings.

When she returned to Alabama, Lila discovered the truth about miracles- that miracles are real, that she was miraculously cancer-free, and that she would continue to be an angel on earth for a while longer yet.

That was 10 years ago. Lila still paints every day and spreads her joy abundantly around the country. Of her work, she says, "My whimsical style is an untrained voice, because of my self-healing. I had to go back to that child to discover who I was. That's how this artwork was born. I know which voice I need to talk in to take care of myself, and sometimes my child voice is the one that heals the unhealthy imprinting of my past."