Chuck Close is an American artist known for his large-scale photorealist portraits created using a grid system where he builds up the image cell by cell. In 1988, Close suffered a spinal artery collapse that left him a quadriplegic, but he continued painting mini portraits with a brush in his teeth as therapy. Although now unable to move his limbs, Close still creates gridded portraits by painting small shapes and colors in each cell to form a recognizable whole.