These days, Michelle Snyder finds she has more time to devote to her artwork. The progressive symptoms of her disease may keep her from holding down a job, but also have freed her to focus on her drawing at home.”I find increasingly I have more time because I’m increasingly more disabled,” the 51-year-old artist reflected in her Bangor studio.” I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

A wife and mother of three, Snyder’s efforts to reshape her life and professional career recently were affirmed. Over Labor Day weekend, she received the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s 2003 Personal Achievement Award for Maine. The award recognizes the personal and professional achievements of people in each state with various neuromuscular diseases.

Snyder was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease in 2001. A form of muscular dystrophy, the peripheral nerve disorder causes progressive weakness in the hands and lower legs. She has since resigned from teaching at the Penobscot Christian School and Bangor Adult Education, but has managed to continue serving as an adjunct professor at Grace Evangelical Seminary in Bangor. She has also earned an associate degree in fine arts from University College of Bangor and is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

“The achievements of Michelle Snyder demonstrate the vital community contributions being made by people with neuromuscular diseases across the country. We’re gratified to honor her as Maine’s MDA Personal Achievement Award recipient for 2003,” Robert Ross, MDA president and chief executive officer, said in a press release.

As her disease has progressed, Snyder has had to wears braces on her legs and make other physical and psychological adjustments. She uses a wheelchair when traveling away from home.

“Without muscular control of the hands, doing fine work is hard,” she acknowledged. “Those 25 years of pen and ink were hard to give up.”

Snyder now works primarily in pencil, a medium that is easily erased and presents fewer frustrations. Her drawing table has been adapted to accommodate her wheelchair. She uses larger pens and drawing tools.

“This disease also comes with a lot of pain, and that is difficult,” she said. “My endurance has really suffered.”

Besides her own artwork, Snyder manages to give private art lessons to 12 students in her studio.

“I really enjoy transferring my enjoyment and enthusiasm for fine art to another student,” she said. “Kids need to understand that what they put on paper says something.”

Snyder describes her artwork as “imaginative.” Her subjects are often mystical or religious in nature. A pencil sketch titled “The Elf” was recently accepted by the MDA Art Collection in Tucson, Ariz.

“I’ve always liked creating something you couldn’t see if I didn’t draw it,” she said.

Snyder said teaching art as a form of visual communication continues to inspire her.

“Art is good therapy,” she said. “It has become something I have to fight for.”