Some artists look death straight in the eyes and refuse to flinch. Henri Matisse, confined to a wheelchair after cancer surgery, reinvented his process entirely, cutting bold, life-affirming shapes from paper when his hands could no longer guide a brush. Georgia O’Keeffe, nearly blind from macular degeneration, refused surrender, dictating color and form to assistants, painting what she could still feel when she could no longer see. Their creativity became defiance, proof that art is not a luxury of health, but a necessity of spirit. That same unbreakable drive runs through Athens, GA resident Chris McKay. Recovering from traumatic brain injury, Ehlers-Danlos complications, and emergency surgery that left him unable to stand or speak, McKay turned to AI not as a gimmick but as a lifeline. Through it, he painted sound pictures when his body could no longer cooperate, transforming limitation into liberation. Like Matisse with scissors or O’Keeffe with voice and vision fading, McKay found a new tool to stay alive through art. His work reminds us that creation is often the final rebellion against pain, the last way to prove we’re still here.