NORTH CAROLINA — A horrific car crash changed a Wilmington man’s life -- it left him with terrible injuries, but it gave him an incredible gift.
Scott Mele said you can’t see trauma, but you can see light. For Mele, that light has come from painting.
“I was going to tell my story to bring light to what it’s like to be somebody who’s depressed or has anxiety, that has gone through trauma and suffering in dealing with losing parts of who they are,” Mele said.
The strokes of a paint covered brush on a canvas can create something beautiful, but one move can alter a painting forever. The same can be said about life.
“I’m 42 years old. I restarted at 38,” Mele said.
Four years ago, Mele was stopped at an intersection when a driver hit him at 70 mph. He didn’t know at the time, but he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Four months later, he woke up feeling lost.
“When I say I was completely estranged to my life, I felt like I was in somebody else’s life and trapped,” Mele said.
The former car salesman said he used to focus on himself, success and material things. Suddenly, he questioned every decision he ever made and fell into a deep depression.
“I felt like I was suffocating every day,” Mele said.
Today, he paints a stunning portrait of a woman under water suffocating, but before the accident, he had no artistic ability at all.
Months after the crash, at a craft store with his kids, he had a compelling urge to paint.
“It was the first time in four months that I saw something that I could relate to that was mine, that left like it was me,” Mele said.
Mele later learned he had Atypical Acquired Savant Syndrome, known in the medical community as an extraordinary condition where an individual displays remarkable abilities they did not have before a brain injury.
Mele is one of 33 known cases in the world.
Like a painting in progress, Mele is still working to create his new life and is hoping to help others who feel lost find beauty along the way.
“I started over at 38 with nothing,” Mele said. “And, had to figure out who I was and what I was going to do and how I was going to get there.”
Mele can paint in many styles. He plans on joining Wilmington’s art scene.
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