Childhood cancer diagnosis helps local artist find his purpose

ATLANTA - Local artist Adam Podber credits his career with time spent in the nurse's office decades ago.

While he was sick with cancer, he was actually in the infirmary at The Epstein School as a means to try and stay busy during recess.

Podber was very fond of sports, but due to his non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosis, he had to pour his energy into a different outlet. That is when he found his love for art.

"The fact that I was allowed to paint on a wall as an 8-year-old was very crazy to me,"  Podber remembers. "This was definitely a great distraction, great art therapy. It took my mind off things, off being sick, on missing out."

Podber went into remission, went on to school at Savannah College of Art and Design and is now an artist, designer, and muralist. The canvases on which he now paints are much bigger in scale and professional in design. 

He recently returned to The Espstein School in Atlanta to create a colorful mural along one of the school's hallways.

The theme - "Your journey starts here. Come create with us."

And his original art remains in the nurse's office, comforting sick kids and helping them escape "feeling bad."