Havant artist with rare Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease uses mouth to create incredible paintings

It’s no surprise artist Karina Vaile is much in demand. The 43-year-old, from Havant, can command hundreds of pounds per painting.

The casual observer might miss the little giveaways to how these artworks are created. For Karina, a mum-of-three, makes them using her hands, fingers, and – most astonishingly – her mouth.

She has a rare condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) which damages the nerves that transmit information from the brain and spinal cord to and from the rest of the body.

Karina is in constant pain, always exhausted, and has limited use of her hands. But nothing gets in the way of her passion for art.

She says: ‘It’s just about adapting and doing things in a different way.

‘I actually paint in bed. I spread out a blanket to catch the paint. Sometimes I use my hands directly on the canvas, no paint brush. If you look closely you can see fingerprints.

‘I lean over with the paintbrush in my mouth but the problem is I now have a bad jaw so I cannot do it for too long. I have so many canvasses that are half-finished because after a while I just have to stop.’

The lengths Karina has to go to to create the pieces makes them even more special.

Life has not been easy for her. She describes the pain as ‘like being slammed into concrete’ and is on daily morphine tablets.

The symptoms of CMT began when Karina was a toddler but it took three decades for doctors to finally diagnose her with the debilitating condition.

She explains: ‘CMT affects people in the same way, but to varying degrees. One person may not have symptoms until they are in their 80s. I developed symptoms when I was three. I would walk on my toes.’

Aged seven she had an operation to extend the tendons in her heels, which had to be repeated when she reached 17. Aged 30, Karina had both hips replaced. She says: ‘People asked why I had it done so young but I had been in so much pain with my hips all my life.

‘It was agony just trying to get through the day and I was losing weight because I was constantly moving to shift the pain.’

Things came to a head a year later.

‘By that stage’, says Karina, ‘I was really struggling. The catalyst came when I dropped something I’d just taken out of the oven and it almost hit Tilly-May when she was a baby. I was dropping stuff all the time and I was covered in burns. I went to the doctors because I had to get it sorted.’

Up until this point the connection between all the things that were wrong with Karina had not been made. But tests eventually revealed it was CMT, which left Karina and husband Jason reeling.

‘I’d never heard of it before so I went home and googled it and I was shocked’, she says. ‘I thought, “surely it can’t get any worse than it is now?” Sadly it can.’

Not only did Karina’s condition deteriorate to the point where she now has to use a wheelchair at times, but, devastatingly, her eldest daughter Kiann, now 20, has also been diagnosed with CMT.

Karina says: ‘To watch your child go through the same problems as you, the pain that you went through, is very hard. But you have to forgive yourself. It is no one’s fault.

‘Had I known that I had CMT before I had children I probably would not have had them because I don’t think it’s fair when you know it will affect their life so badly.

‘Children have a 50/50 chance of having it. In my case, both my parents tested negative and it appears to have been a mutated gene which I then passed on.

‘Kiann deals with it really well. She looks after me even though she has CMT. From the age of nine she picked up her youngser sister from school and took her shopping. She was like a little mum.’

It’s a situation Karina knows only too well. She was a carer for her mum, who was left disabled by polio. And she learned a very valuable lesson from her. ‘I grew up in the situation my children are in now.

‘My mum would always say, “there’s no such word as can’t. Don’t think about things you can’t do, think about things you can do”.

‘That always stayed with me.’

And that is why Karina continues to produce her incredible works of art for the world to appreciate.

What is Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease?

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease is a genetic condition that damages peripheral nerves.

These nerves are responsible for passing on commands from the brain to the muscles (motor nerves) and for passing information to the brain about sensations, such as pain, heat, cold, touch, importantly for balance – where your joints are in space (sensory nerves). When these are damaged, people are said to have a neuropathy.

Because of this nerve damage, people with CMT may find that some of their muscles become slowly weaker over the years, particularly in their feet and hands. Some find that feeling becomes dull, or numb, in the same areas. There is no cure but the pain can be managed.

Karina Vaile has generously donated a number of her sought-after paintings to hospitals and charities which have helped her.

The Royal Surrey County and Frimley Park Hospitals in Surrey now proudly display her work on their walls.

Local schools and the charity CMT Research have also benefited.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth UK (cmt.org.uk) has been a huge help to Karina.

For her next project Karina will be drawing people with disabilities, showing them as proud individuals.

For commissions go to kvaile.co.uk.

Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaigning on your behalf for our city.