CONTRA MESA, Calif. _ He reached for the side of his head and felt his protruding skull, which had shifted in the accident. Through the blood and alcohol haze, he could feel part of his skull was not where it should be, and there was a gaping hole.
He remembers looking at the stars, as he lay waiting to be rescued in the tall weeds down the embankment by the side of the road, and thinking how wrong his life was. He had been an art student with unusual ability, but he had blown that.
His paintings had been tight, precise re-creations of the work of the masters, while his life was loose, out of control.
"If I go, I go," he said to himself.
Brian Menish, who is now 27, lost so much that day _ the ability to speak, walk and use his right hand.
And he gained so much.
In the years since, Menish has regained his speech and ability to walk and has taught himself to paint with his left hand. And now his art is loose, a more abstract look at the world, while his sober life is tight.
Menish's paintings are on display beginning today at an exhibition called "Hidden Truths, the Mind Unraveled" at the Gray Matter Museum in Costa Mesa. The exhibit is an annual fundraiser for epilepsy research. More than 50 art pieces were created by people with epilepsy. Among his many problems, Menish began having epileptic seizures after the accident.
