Engineer becomes successful artist after stroke rewires his brain

New man: Ken Walters discovered a hitherto unknown talent for art after a stroke rewired his brain

A former engineer who was disabled and living on benefits has turned his life around - after a stroke rewired his brain and turned him into an artist.



Ken Walters suffered multiple spine fractures and massive internal injuries when he was crushed against a wall by a fork lift truck when a driver lost control.



The horrific accident left him wheelchair-bound and jobless and triggered a 19-year depression. Two life-threatening heart attacks deepened his gloom.

And when things looked like they couldn't get any worse, Mr Walters suffered a stroke at his home in 2005.



But incredibly the cerebral haemorrhage turned out to be an astonishing piece of good fortune.



For it 'rewired' part of his brain and spawned an artistic flair he never previously possessed.



Now, after his early doodles developed into advanced digital images, Mr Walters has created his own software and been snapped up by computer giant EA games at the age of 51.

The global firm has asked him to create digital creatures for a new educational game on evolution.

Mr Walters has already netted a cool £30,000 from his back bedroom creativity.



Newfound talent: Two examples of Mr Walter's in-demand digital art



Speaking from his home in Ormskirk, Lancashire, he beamed: 'When I had the accident that put me in a wheelchair my life fell to pieces.



'I couldn't work, I couldn't even walk, and my passion and drive just ebbed out of me. I slumped into depression and must have been on a downer for nearly twenty years.



'Then I had the stroke and this passion for art just came out from nowhere.

'I hated it in school. I was never really the arty type, more hands on. But I have to say wherever this new found love for art has come from it's certainly changed my life forever.



'Although I didn't realise it at the time, having a stroke was the biggest blessing in disguise I ever could have wished for.



'I have amazed myself by the turnaround to be honest but I'm loving every minute of it. Now I wouldn't change my life for anything.'



Ken Walters secured a deal with EA games for the rights to use his designs

Ken's stroke of luck happened as he was talking on the phone to a pal at his ground-floor flat in Ormskirk.

He said: 'I just started slurring my words and my speech slowed down and I started drooling over the phone.



'It was very strange I wasn't in pain but I was getting really agitated.



'Doctors later told me I had suffered a mild stroke.'



The haemorrhage left Ken's left side paralysed and he needed speech therapy for seven months.

Desperately looking for something to relieve his boredom but with little strength to perform everyday tasks, he picked up a pencil and started doodling on paper.



'I just started pencilling these abstract patterns,' he said. 'I wasn't actually drawing anything, just letting my hands do whatever my brain was telling them.



'I couldn't hold the brush properly yet I just had these urges to draw. It was bizarre because before the stroke I'd never been the arty type. I hated it in school.'



Doctors convinced the abstract musings were the result of a rewiring of the brain encouraged Ken to develop his new found hobby.



'My doctor told me following a stroke your brain usually rewires itself to avoid the damaged bits and often leads to discovering hidden talents,' he said.



Bachelor Ken started transferring his work to computers and within months had become an expert in digital imagery and had even created his own software.

Mr Walters said he wouldn't change his life for anything, since finding his new talent

Sensing a new business opportunity, he started selling his work to online bidders and forged contacts with a host of big name computer firms.



Then came the breakthrough on October last year.



EA games were so impressed with a gallery of computerised creatures he had dreamed up they commissioned him to design 100 digital dinosaurs for a new educational game called Spore.



Now Ken owns the copyright for the creatures and gets a cut of merchandise sales.



He's also been snapped up to design mobile wallpaper for online download company chi-qui.com and his paltry £30-a-week income has soared to more than £30,000 a year.



Ken said: 'I still have to pinch myself at times. I'm a very lucky man because you see so many tragic tales of how strokes leave people in a vegetated state.



'That could easily have been me but it wasn't. And now I've found the biggest passion I've ever had in my life. It's remarkable.



'Now I'm planning to go from strength to strength and get my name known around the globe as a leading digital artist.'

