Paralyzed Artist Daren Dieter, Son of Phila. Consumer Advocate, Dead at 29
By Kim Glovas
An East Oak Lane artist, the adopted son of city consumer advocate Lance Haver, has died.
Daren Dieter, 29, died suddenly Tuesday, four years after being gravely wounded in a shooting.
Dieter was a graphic artist who became paralyzed from the neck down in 2007 after being shot inside his car in West Oak Lane, while he was picking up a takeout food order for dinner.
After the shooting, Dieter got around using a motorized wheelchair, and he never gave up on his artwork.
He took up painting at the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. Art therapist Lori Tiberi says Daren was an amazing artist whose work was being featured on a new calendar.
"He would make the choices of the colors he would use, and began the more abstract artwork and developed his own style, his own movement, to create paintings," Tiberi tells KYW Newsradio. "The one that is on the cover of the 2012 Magee calendar [lefthand panel above] is an example of his more abstract work."
She says it was such a privilege to work with Darren and she hopes his work can be an inspiration for others.
