Betty Peters

Faith guides artist down new path

May 11, 2008
Dothan Eagle

There are a lot of things Joan Weems shouldn’t be able to do.

She shouldn’t be able to move her arms let alone use her hands, but she does. One hand is better than the other, but she’s adapted to life with a dominate left hand. She shouldn’t be able to move her feet or feel sensation in her legs. She’s not even supposed to feel her butt cheeks. Yet, she can.

And she definitely shouldn’t be able to paint.

But she does.

“I love art so much,” Weems said. “Every material is just excitement to me. There’s not a medium I don’t love or relate to.”

Before June 1, 2005, Joan Weems had a good life. Happily married. A teaching career at Northview High School. Her own art. And a second career of sorts providing art therapy at Living Waters Counseling Center, a Christian-based counseling center in Headland.

She felt she was on the path God wanted her to follow.

Then, a terrible traffic accident on U.S. 431 took her down a new path. Trying to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle coming at her in a crowded median, Weems backed her car up. An 18-wheeler clipped the rear of her car, spun it around and tossed it in a ditch. The force broke her neck and left her paralyzed.

She spent a month in the intensive care unit of a Dothan hospital and another two months at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga., which specializes in spinal cord injuries. Her injuries left her as what is known as an incomplete quadriplegic.

Weems pushed herself through rehab and would do isometrics with her arms while lying in her hospital bed. She had to paint again. Her husband outfitted a glove and paint brushes with magnets to help her hold the brushes until she could grip them on her own.

By the September after her accident, Weems had completed her first painting. The painting of a large, red flower hangs in her dining room.

Virginia Mayer, director at Living Waters Counseling, said Weems has a gift with children. She can get children to open up through art in ways many therapists cannot. The accident, Mayer said, strengthened Weems’ resolve to help others and gave her a perspective of people’s needs and pain she didn’t have before.

“She would not give up, and I think that inspires her patients,” Mayer said. “She doesn’t just talk about God, she lives it.”

Sitting in Koinonia Kaffe on the square in Headland recently, Weems laughs and smiles as she tells her story. The walls around her are covered in some of her life’s works — paintings done before the accident as well as those done after the accident. She doesn’t give herself time to be bitter, a reaction she sees as just giving in to adversity rather than fighting it.

She rarely uses the magnetic glove now. Her left hand has improved enough to where she can grip things and has movement in her fingers. Her right hand has improved, but is still weak.

She uses them together when she needs to paint small details.

She can move her right leg better than her left, and she has some abdominal strength back.

Her latest exciting moment was when she realized she could feel her butt cheeks.

Weems feels she’s making the most of the gifts God gave her — a positive nature and the ability to encourage others. She continues providing art therapy counseling at Living Waters.

But Weems decided to reach deeper. She enrolled in courses at Troy University in Dothan and is working toward her master’s degree in community counseling. Weems hopes to start a group for people with disabilities through Living Waters. She said God fashioned her new life for a reason.

“Wouldn’t it be great in this world if people never had time to get bitter about things?” she said.
“You can be of use. Why live your life like you’re in a coffin … Our lives are meant to live, really, for each other. God’s gifts are meant for other people — through you, but for other people.”

Rhonda Harrison, owner of Koinonia Kaffe, has known Weems since 2000. Weems was actually Harrison’s Sunday school teacher.

Since the accident, Weems has given private art lessons to two of Harrison’s children. A reception at the cafe to launch Weems’ exhibit resulted in the biggest turnout the small business has ever experienced. Koinonia rotates local artists featured on its walls. Weems’ work will be on display through the end of May.

Harrison said Weems was inspiring before her accident.

“I think it strengthened her faith more, which was not lacking to begin with,” Harrison said. “I think she’s on a different path, and I think that’s what’s become evident to her since the accident. God has put her on a different path than what she thought he had planned for her.”

And Weems believes she will one day walk this new path.

“My feeling is, yes, the Lord intends for me to walk again, but it will be in His time,” Weems said. “He wants people to be astounded. He wants people to see His power.”

If you go …
What: Art exhibit of the work of Joan Weems.
Where: Koinonia Kaffe, 11 Grove St., on the square in Headland.
When: Through the end of May.
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Sunday.
Phone: (334) 693-3355.

If you go …

What: Art exhibit of the work of Joan Weems.
Where: Koinonia Kaffe, 11 Grove St., on the square in Headland.
When: Through the end of May. Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Sunday.
Phone: (334) 693-3355.