BillLindau

From The Moore County Independent, Dec. 21, 2006
Photos of two of Palmer Hill's paintings done with her teeth, Palmer Hill with companions working on a painting at the Penick Village, Southern Pines, N.C.
BILL LINDAU
SPECIAL TO THE INDEPENDENT
Palmer Hill has been painting since she was a child. With an exhibit in the Sky Gallery of Aberdeen last month, she has shown everybody that nothing can stop her when she takes a brush to canvas.
Not even a debilitating illness.
Palmer Hill was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Soon she lost the use of her arms, then her legs. But she has persisted with her art. She paints with her teeth.
The results look better than most people can do with her hands. She even sold some of them at her exhibit.
With the help of her talented mother and two friends, Hill continues to paint. She does it once a week for two hours, in her room at the Penick Village in Southern Pines. One person holds the canvas and the other mixes the colors. Once she likes the way everything's set up, Hill takes a brush between her teeth and paints away, for about two hours a session, every Wednesday afternoon.
Hill has been painting with her teeth since 2002. She says she can move her right wrist a bit, but not enough to paint. She uses oils with a water base on canvas. Still life and animals make up most of her subjects.
She has been painting steadily since 1995, but she has been unable to work since 1996.
Hill came to the Penick Home in 2000. Since that year, she has also had plenty of assistance with her art. Pidgie Chapman has been coming in to mix the paints on the palette. Steve Sanders holds the easel for her. Her mother, an accomplished portrait and landscape artist named Joan Milligan, paints the canvas with a background color of Hill's choice every time Hill begins a painting. When Chapman can't make it, others are willing to help.
Mike Harrison is also a member of her little corps, serving as her trainer.
"It's a real team effort," Hill says.
"My mother paints the canvas one color," Hill says. "I do the drawing and the outline and I just paint away."
"I've gotten a lot better at it over the years," she adds. "I'm able to do better with my brush."
Hill says she usually takes about four to five times to complete a painting. The longest she's had to do one is eight times.
Hill cites her mother as the biggest influence on her painting, with her own artwork and taking the young Palmer to museums.
After high school, Hill went to art school, before graduating from the University of North Carolina in the School of Journalism.
Hill worked as a reporter from 1980 to 1987. After that, she found a job doing subtitles for television shows, for the hearing-impaired.
Hill also worked as a publicist for the state of North Carolina's 400th anniversary celebration, which dates back to the settlement of the so-called Lost Colony in what is now Manteo, in 1984.
After that, Hill spent five years as a lobbyist for the Child Welfare League of America in Washington, D.C. She ended up working with the State Department.
At that time, 1992, the bottom seemed to fall out of her life; she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
"I wanted to do that my whole life," she said.
She said it was tough for her; at first she was in denial when she heard her diagnosis. But with the support of her family and friends, she did not fold. For 11 years she has continued to paint.
Hill has plenty of advice for those suffering from Multiple Sclerosis: Take heart and be honest with yourself.
"There are many more treatments for MS now than in 1992," Hill says. "So see a doctor. Don't be in denial of it the way I was. I didn't believe I had it until I lost my legs. So pay attention to your body."