Valerie Atkisson de Moura and Art from Ancestry

After an emerging-artist blitz of 26 New York exhibitions in just 7 years, the award-winning visual artist Valerie Atkisson de Moura hit a wall. Adrift and depressed in a new home, she received a medical diagnosis of an incurable disease and discovered that her mother had the same disease but had kept it secret from the family. Then, in a horrible year, her mother died, Valerie was hit by a car and suffered head trauma that changed the way she lives and works. Throughout everything, the artist's focus of creating art based on family history sustains her and propels her forward.

Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.