Beyond the Arts

A Live demonstration at Chesire Disability Services in Port Moresby - (C) 2016

I will begin by citing the famous quote by Pablo Picasso which states, ”Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”.  Before anybody learns to do math, science, engineering, business, law, medicine or investigate other specialized fields, they all have expressed themselves through many forms of creative art, be it dance, scribbling lines as drawings or responding to the tones of music.  For instance, if you play music to a two year old toddler, you will be amazed at the immediate response from their face, hands and body movements.  Likewise, give a toddler a crayon or pencil and they will unsurprisingly start to scribble, thereby expressing their young personalities and perceptions of the world at such an early stage in their life.  Creative art is naturally embedded in humans and so it should be embraced right throughout their lifespan in order to encourage creative solutions to everyday problems. 

The reason I began with the quoted statement from Picasso is to introduce the core intent of this article which reflects on empowering a child to follow their dreams rather than forcing them to follow our requirements.   Since art has greater likelihood of fostering creative learning, imaginative thinking and creation, art may be regarded as an important ingredient of success.  This is because various aspects of creativity are entailed in all arts-oriented fields.  Today, we may have experiences with common practices in many societies where parents want their children to grow up, guided by their expectations.  Similarly, we may also have come across one or many of the education systems that failed to support students’ creative learning instead promoted attainment of certain grades to be classified into certain knowledge-hierarchy.  What many may have failed to embrace is the importance of empowering every child to follow their passion which should guide them throughout their life.  This brings us to a classic example of a twelve year old boy, living in a very challenging society who presented his abilities beyond the arts that he produced.

Cornelius drawing - 2012

Cornelius Yalamu (a.k.a Dati), is a 12 year old boy living with cerebral palsy and spends most of his time learning at home with support from his mother and father.  If you happen to come across Cornelius, you would easily identify his strong charisma and love to share whatever he has with others.  He has a very intriguing character that portrays motivation and dedication despite circumstances hindering him.  Cornelius is very intelligent and possesses a very good memory.  Because of his intrinsic ability to remember things, the family considers him as their storage drive to keep all their important records.  Many times, when the family tells stories and gives accounts of wrong dates, he immediately interrupts and corrects them.  Initially, the family argues with him but after several attempts, everyone realizes his dates are always accurate.  He is soft-hearted but gets annoyed when there is an argument. 

Cornelius originates from a mixed heritage of Morobe, Madang and Goroka.  He was born and raised in Port Moresby and is the second born among two other brothers.  He spends most of his time at home with his parents learning to read, write and work on his computer.  His mother assisted and taught him to read, write and supports him with most of his daily chores while his father provides the resources and technical equipment, including assistance and facilitates the entire learning and upbringing process.  Both parents support him and ensure he gets what he desires for his learning.

Cornelius had great passion for arts when he was just three years old and later ventured into computer generated graphic design at the age of seven.  His ambitions were possibly shaped around the environment he grew up in however, his capabilities portrayed well over ordinary abilities.  He loves music and visual arts, especially drawing.  When he was a toddler, he enjoyed singing with his mother and joins in family’s devotional chorus every Sunday.  People find Cornelius to be inspiring, motivational and encouraging.

The passion for art surfaced when Cornelius was three years of age.  Seeing his dad draw and paint, he decided to get his pencil and also draw.  His fourteen year old brother would occasionally assist him to color his artwork.  When he got praise from his drawings and realized his potential, he demanded his own brush so he could experiment with painting.  Unlike everyone who uses their hands to do things, he had a special way of expressing his art by using his left foot.  Cornelius preferred to use his feet rather than his hands since he was three years old.  At the age of seven, he was permitted to use a computer to do graphic design.  He shocked his dad with one of his Photoshop pieces of work one evening and that totally changed the way his dad perceived his life.  His father never wanted him to use his feet to do his artwork and implemented a rule that Cornelius could only use a computer if he used his hands.  This rule was imposed in the hope that he would eventually use his hands.  Every evening, he would sit next to his dad, watching him do his after-hour graphic design and multimedia projects but never had a chance to touch a computer because of the restriction.  One evening, at the age of seven, he watched his dad and went past his bed time so his mother came and called him to go to bed.  He insisted on staying up with his dad and watching him work so his mother left him and went to bed.  A few minutes later, his dad asked if he could take him to bed.  

A painting done in 2015

However, Cornelius asserted he didn’t feel sleepy and wanted to watch his father work.  An hour later, the dad felt sorry for him so he asked if he would like to work on the laptop, just to keep him busy until he finished his remaining tasks.  In no time, he nodded in agreement and was allowed to use a laptop.  He headed straight to Adobe Photoshop and started editing his photo and one of his elder brother’s.  The time moved towards midnight and knowing it was no good for Cornelius to stay up that late, his father instructed him to shut down the computer and call it a day. Cornelius called his dad over to show his progressive work.  Upon sighting the work, his dad was astonished because Cornelius had never seriously used a computer or even used Photoshop.  At this moment, Cornelius’ father realized his son’s artistic and creative potential and abilities, once given the freedom to experiment with his curiosity.  From that time onwards, Cornelius was given a computer to focus on his strengths and explore his passion for computer generated art.  Using his feet to work on a computer wasn’t that easy for Cornelius when he first started.  He cried on several occasions when his ideas couldn’t be transferred onto the computer because his left-foot was a little stiff due to his muscle contraction and the standard mouse is not designed for the feet. 

Over the years, Cornelius made friends with many people and in 2014, one of his friends, Robert Banasi who, at that time worked with the National Disability Resource and Advocacy Center (NDRAC), brought their media team to his home for an interview.  During that time,  Cornelius had still been exploring his ability to produce computer generated graphics and was spending most of his time drawing so Rhonda Clement, the journalist, interviewed Cornelius and his mother and later, his first publication was published in one of the daily newspapers and also online. 

Interactive App Interface - (C) 2016

  
In February of 2016, after dropping Cornelius’s elder brother at school, he said he also wanted to go to school so the family took him straight to Cheshire Disability Services to inquire.  The staff there advised his parents to take him through their normal testing and assessment as required to identify his level of competency both physically and intellectually.  He passed most of his intellectual abilities, however  he needed more work on his physical exercises so he was advised to attend weekly visits for his physio therapy.  Since he passed his intellectual tests, he was referred to the special school and was asked to pay certain fees which he did however, the school facilitators failed to accommodate him due to his level of specialty in computing so he resorted back to home schooling.  In December of that year, Cheshire Disability Services planned a celebration to coincide with the International Day for Persons with Disabilities and various items were prepared for that event along with students’ graduation.  Cornelius agreed to participate in a live demonstration on stage where he created an interactive app which he called, Dati’s Drum Kit.  His presentation caught the attention of many and though his skills were delivered successfully live in front of everyone, it seemed his peers were not ready to embrace the level he tried to demonstrate.  Fortunately, his presentation did encourage parents to look at the hidden abilities of their children other than their visible disabilities.  Post Courier published his presentation the following week and also uploaded it online.

His current settup - (C) 2017

In 2017, Cornelius was challenged to develop his website and start publishing a few of his works online to inspire and motivate his peers.  With help from his mother and father, Cornelius executed his website and submitted it online. 

His website can be seen at http://www.artech.com.pg/site/cornelius/.  In the meantime, Cornelius is working on some of his new artworks to upload.  After completing his website, his dad sent the link to organizers of TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers, a global movement bringing together people with disabilities and industry specialists who develop open source assistive technology to address everyday challenges.  Cornelius has recently been invited to be part of the 2017 TOM: Melbourne which is hosting a 72 hours challenge in which Cornelius, along with other people with special needs in Australia, will be working alongside engineers, designers and developers to find solutions to existing problems.  There are 11 challenges for 2017 in which Cornelius’ challenge is one of them.  His challenge description reads as follows:

• “Cornelius (a.k.a. Dati) is a 12 year old boy living with cerebral palsy since birth. Cornelius loves art and is determined to be a professional graphic designer. Due to a lack of strength in his arms and hands, he has been inspired by his father to tap into art especially drawing, painting and creating computer generated graphic design using his left foot.  Since the age of 7, Cornelius has used his left foot and a standard computer mouse, becoming a computing pro because of his quick thinking and creative abilities.
  
  His current setup is far from ideal and Cornelius wishes to have a technological device that helps his brain and left-foot coordinate synchronously so all the great ideas he has can come alive and he can inspire others to never give up.”
  

A 3D work done in Cinema 4D (c) 2016

Cornelius claimed he wanted to be a digital 3D artist and envisioned that one day, he would help share his knowledge with others to inspire and motivate them.  His long-term ambition is to establish an association that will promote digital learning and he hopes he will be able to contribute in that area when he grows up.  Apart from the support Cornelius gets from his parents, he also has ongoing backing from his relatives and friends including Michael Tom, Esther Jessem and all the kind-hearted staff of Physio Therapy section – Community Base Rehabilitation (CBR) at Cheshire Disability Services PNG in Port Moresby.

A contribution to Kumul Fonts V1.0 - (C) 2015

The story of Cornelius may be one amongst many around us which are yet to be exposed.  There are children and adults with special needs who are judged through their visible disabilities and not empowered to utilize their hidden abilities.  If only able people can look beyond the visible abilities and give people like Cornelius a chance to express themselves, they can be a valuable asset to our societies and even contribute immensely to the economic development of their nation.  One thing for sure is that we able people can learn widely from them and help them use their abilities to release their creative potentials and to live their daily lives, despite the countless challenges which able people do not experience.  From Cornelius’ experience, and a few others whose stories have been shared in the media locally and internationally, we can learn that they have kept the raw attributes as creative species which have been given to us from birth to sustain our lives and live life happily.  We too, can dignify our existence by discovering our inner capabilities through creative living.  As art embodies the essence of creativity, it is necessary to embrace and empower creative learning, imaginative thinking and critical construction in every person’s behavior so they will be able to live independent, constructive and fulfilling lives.