Going through my stuff, I found something that I just couldn’t keep to myself – it was that cool. It’s a little bit of a break from the Norm, but man is it an awesome story. I figured I’d share it for some inspiration.

Some time ago, I got an email from Patrick Sherman, the Web Boss for the F/V Northwestern. Now if you don’t know the F/V Northwestern, it’s one of the featured boats on Discovery Channel’s The Deadliest Catch (a show which, I will say, has a bunch of people in the office biting nails.. they love it).

Patrick wanted to turn me on to an artist named Teresa that did an AMAZING piece of the F/V Northwestern. That’s the picture picture on the right. If you click on the picture you will be taken to her Deviant Art profile where you can see even more amazing pictures.

That, however, is not where the story ends. This is Teresa’s story:
“On September 25th, 1994, I was in a massive auto accident. I was completely paralyzed, and left without speech, all courtesy of a drunk driver. The woman got 12 years, awarded parole at 10. For the last 4 years I have been designing and painting my own graphics. All is accomplished with my mouth. It is now coming upon 13 years post injury. I try to keep an open mind, it’s not always easy… But I am always willing to learn and be taught anything. If you have an open mind, maybe I can teach you something too! Check out my artwork and paintings in the slideshow below!”

Teresa’s DeviantART profile
Link to the F/V Northwestern Picture
A link to see Teresa at Work

If this isn’t a wonderful example of will, determination, and immense talent – I don’t know what is. Teresa, if you read this, you’re an absolute inspiration. Maybe we can get her to do a quick Q&A for us here at some point.. talk us through her work process. Make sure you stop into her DeviantART profile and leave her a note, or leave a comment here for her.

We have a cool Premiere tutorial and the Blog Contest Winners after the jump, so make sure you click on the Read More link below!

Premiere CS4 Nesting Command
In this video, Franklin McMahon uses Premiere Pro CS4 to create a nested sequence and then overlays it over a backdrop. I like where Premiere CS4 is going with things.. so I think you’ll begin to see a lot more of that on future episodes of Layers TV too. Click on the link below to check out the tutorial:

Premiere CS4 Nesting Overview – Franklin McMahon

Blog Contest Winners
So.. let’s send out a quick congratulations for our Layers Blog winners this week:

Joetta Janczak
Richard Lauer
Bob Rozanski

Definitely let me know what you think of the Photo Canvas that you get!

That’s it for this week everyone. Have a wonderful weekend. We’ll see you guys back here Monday morning!