Customer Spotlight

Jason Martins at the Minnesota Museum of American Art

“Night Driver” - by Jason Martins - Woodcut - 1982

Jason Martins was born in 1969, at a time when medical treatment for children with spina bifida was only beginning. Doctors told his family he would not live to see his first birthday. Jason likes to answer that prediction with a simple line: “I’m still here”

Raised in Minnesota, Jason grew up during a period when schools and public spaces were rarely built with disabled children in mind. He became one of the first students using a wheelchair to attend public school in Minnesota, navigating buildings without ramps or elevators and carving out space for himself in a world that had not yet imagined students like him in its classrooms.

Art became one way Jason made sense of that experience. “Night Driver”, created during his middle school years, comes from a particularly difficult time in his life. The stark lines and dark field capture motion, isolation, and the feeling of moving through a world that can be both mysterious and hard to navigate.

Throughout his life, Jason has worked in a wide range of jobs—from data entry and document processing to packaging and mail handling—always determined to contribute his skills and independence in whatever way he could. Today he serves as a volunteer gallery assistant at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, welcoming visitors and sharing his quiet enthusiasm for the creative work around him.

Jason’s life, like his art, reflects persistence, curiosity, and a deep sense of presence. Against the odds he was given at birth, he continues to create, work and greet the world with the same steady message: I’m still here.

“Night Driver” is currently on display at the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s Volunteer Showcase running through December. Admission is free but donations are welcome.