BRAIN-INJURED ARTIST SKETCHES RECOVERY PATH.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

Six years after suffering a brain injury that left him partially paralyzed, Peter Madsen said art was a major factor in his recovery and he wants to teach others with disabilities.

Madsen, 55, of Simi Valley was a sculptor whose work was being displayed in galleries in Arizona, California and Colorado before he was injured in a horseback riding accident. After he lay in a coma for three months, the most he could do was scratch squiggly lines with a pencil.

Several years of intensive physical therapy eventually allowed him to regain movement in his left arm and leg.

Now he wants to offer drawing, painting and sculpting classes out of his garage. Details have not yet been worked out, but Madsen said he can't wait to begin.

``I want to teach someone,'' Madsen said. ``I want to be useful. I want to help.''

The smell of new carpet fills the garage that will become the classroom. At a special frame, propped up in back by a thick board, Madsen is working on a new sculpture that has yet to take shape. Formerly right-handed, the artist uses the frame as support while he molds clay with his left hand.

On a wall in the makeshift classroom is a corkboard filled with pictures Madsen drew during his many therapy sessions.

The pictures, drawn on quarter sheets of paper, show the progress he made in the years after his brain injury. Some are just circles or other shapes. Some show a stronger hand writing out the letters of the alphabet.

His early pictures of horses after the accident are simple, drawn with a hesitant hand. Recent charcoal pictures, however, are intricately drawn with strong dark strokes.

Norma Foster, who runs a support group through Simi Valley Hospital for those who have survived strokes or other neurological injuries, saw the role art played in Madsen's therapy.

She saw him start by drawing circles and other shapes to improve his motor skills. As his mobility increased, his drawings became more sophisticated, his confidence increased and his spirits were lifted, she said. Sometimes she had him draw on the computer, rather than on paper, because it was less tiring for him physically.

``I used art to stimulate him,'' Foster said. ``It helps with motor skills and it helped him learn once learn to think in sequence.''

Although art was used in his therapy sessions from the beginning, three years passed after the accident before Madsen remembered he was an artist.

``When Pete was coming out of the coma, I would bring clay to the hospital,'' said his wife, Vicki, ``but he had no interest in it. When he came home, I would put it in his hand, and he would say he couldn't do it.''

In 1996, hoping to rekindle his love for creating art, she invited some of his sculpting friends over. She watched as a smile came over his face while he held a piece of clay that a friend had handed to him.

Madsen said he is thankful that his brain allowed him to remember his former passion.

He keeps the drawings on the wall to remind himself of his progress.

``Art has been good for me,'' he said from his wheelchair. ``When I draw, my feelings come out, my frustrations go away, and I feel better.''

With computer drawing, Madsen plans to start a greeting card business someday with pictures created electronically.

Members of the state Department of Rehabilitation have brought a computer into his home and staff members are training him to use it.

``His goal is to be a graphic artist. Whatever it takes to help him reach that goal, we will provide,'' said Camille Terzian, senior vocational rehabilitation counselor. ``Every time I come here, I'm amazed at what I see.''

Madsen's neurosurgeon, Dr. David Brandes, explained that Madsen's injuries were to the left side of the brain, resulting in paralysis on the right side of the body, which had been his dominant side.

The right side of the brain is generally considered the artistic side, Brandes explained, so art was possible in his therapy.

``In rehabilitation, you need to rehabilitate the brain in its entirety,'' Brandes said. ``Art was a major part of his life, so it was important to bring that back. If he continues doing things over and over again, and exercises the brain repetitively, there's no end to the improvement that can occur.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) On the wall behind him, Peter Madsen keeps drawings that show his recovery after a brain injury left him comatose.

(2) Former professional sculptor Peter Madsen is using a computer in his comeback as an artist after a brain injury.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer