HENRICO COUNTY, Va. β Walking into Mimi Murdock's Henrico home is a lot like stepping into a painting.
"My house, everything's fluid, you know, it's just going to change," Murdock said. "I'm a visual person, so I just want to see things that amuse me and make me happy."
More than a hobby, art flows through Murdock's body.
"Sometimes you think your brain can't hold anymore, so you throw it on a canvas, and that helps," she said.
Each stroke is an expression. Every canvas is caked with layers of color. Her compositions constantly exist in a state of change.
"I mean the only thing you can expect in life is change, right?" Murdock said.
Change is a concept Murdock has learned to accept, especially after her multiple sclerosis diagnosis transformed her artistic process and her life.
"The thing that's changed the most is because of my multiple sclerosis," she said. "It's affected my eyesight. I'm legally blind. And also my hands don't work as well as they used to, so I'm not nearly as detailed as I used to be."
The professional painter was just 24 years old when she received the diagnosis. The symptoms at first were subtle.
"Things creep up on you so slowly that you don't even realize it's changing until you find you can't do something anymore that you used to be able to do. It kind of sneaks up on you," Murdock said.
"I've had multiple sclerosis for 40 years, and I could walk for 20 of those 40 years. Then it just started going down after that. I was in a wheelchair, and I just had to start over from there. I had a lot of things going against me, physically, financially," she said.
But even when life is turned upside down, to an artist, everything is just a matter of perspective.
"I was like I'm going to turn this baby around, as best I can," she said.
Thanks to a rotating easel, Murdock can access her canvas with greater ease, tackling her work up close, one section at a time. Though legally blind, she maintains laser-like focus while sitting in a wheelchair splattered with acrylic paint.
Murdock's process is notably different, but sometimes in life, the more things change, the more they stay the same β like friendships.
"She is still the same Mimi that I knew when we were 19, 20 years old. And I love that Mimi," longtime friend Pete Harwood said.
Murdock and Harwood knew each other in their late teens before Harwood left Virginia to pursue photography in California. That changed when he received an unexpected message.
"I saw the name Mimi Murdock and I was like oh my gosh. So I called her that weekend and we talked and same girl," Harwood said.
The two reconnected over a shared love of art and photography.
"I might have an eye behind the lens, which is important, but I couldn't do what she does," Harwood said.
It wasn't long before Harwood decided to move back to Virginia.
"I also knew that she had multiple sclerosis, but I didn't know how bad it was getting," Harwood said.
Murdock said every day she'd text Harwood to tell him something bad that had happened that day, but that did not deter him.
"I can help you. I'm retiring. I'm still physically able to do things," Harwood said.
"He came out anyway and he's been helping me for the last 5 years, pretty selflessly, I'd say," Murdock said.
Life is definitely different now.
"You know, everything is just so much messier than it used to be, but I have to kind of embrace that," Murdock said.
But like each composition, collage and canvas yet to be filled with color, Murdock's passion prevails.
"I think she's producing some of her best work now," Harwood said. "I don't know how she does it because she is so limited with her left hand and she's right-handed."
"We have such a short time. Why spend any of it being uptight and worried about," Murdock said.
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