Sarah Jane Parsons became paralyzed from the shoulders down after a car accident when she was 20 years old during a camping trip to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota with her then boyfriend and sister but decades later she found love with Jimmy Turner a 71 year old deaf artist who reads lips and created a unique form of communication mixing American Sign Language and American Indian Sign Language. The 61 year old artist who paints by holding brushes in her mouth says Turner’s language is really intuitive to her and she tries to mimic with her body and face as much as she can the signs that he has created for their own private way of talking that transcends traditional communication. In 2012 the couple brought their families together in Portland Maine to celebrate their relationship in what they describe as a Forever Love Celebration marking their commitment to each other after bumping into each other multiple times before dating.
Parsons was recently selected as one of twelve artists featured in the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists 2026 calendar chosen from hundreds of entries with Turner telling her you’re famous now when she shared the exciting news of her selection. The multi talented woman first started painting in law school and says the craft is special because it’s one thing she didn’t have to relearn in a new way post accident since she can work from her memories of when she was able bodied. Both artists laugh about being in a relationship with another creative saying they joke about how they’re not both supposed to be poor artists but here they are with their artistic spirits forming one of the deep bonds that tie them to each other across twenty years together.
