Renowned US painter David Lenz paints people usually marginalised by society and in an exclusive interview with the Luxembourg Times spoke about his work during a visit to the country where one of his award-winning paintings now hangs.

Lenz is dedicated to painting portraits of people with disabilities, as he believes in the inherent interconnectedness of the universe and challenges the way the society reacts to people who happen to be “different”.

“The first painting I did of a person with a disability was of [my son] Sam,” Lenz said during an interview with the Luxembourg Times.

Lenz has been making portraits of different marginalized groups who have not traditionally been popular subjects of art history. He started out painting African American children in Milwaukee while collaborating with local community organisations. He then portrayed Wisconsin farm families, and has been working with people with disabilities since 2005.

“It’s what I feel I should be doing not [just] with my career but with my life,” he said.