Persons with disabilities can be very good artists. Prolific classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven of Germany was one famous example. Despite being deaf, the renowned German composer of “Symphony No. 9” produced at least 722 compositions during his lifetime.
Filipina painter Daniela Fatima Crisostomo is another example. She has painted her own version of the “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci and “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. Crisostomo personally demonstrated her talent in one recent episode of the morning TV show “Unang Hirit,” painting a portrait of one of the hosts, Arnold Clavio.
Surprisingly, Crisostomo learned to paint only early this year by watching tutorials on YouTube. This she did despite her disability.
Her mother, Jean, told the show that her daughter has arthrogryposis or a lack of joints in the hands and feet. She paints by holding the paintbrush with her teeth. And she sings well, too, as she demonstrated on the show.
Another amazing person with a disability is Vino of Paracale, Camarines Norte. The 52-year-old father of one makes a living by digging for gold. He is the only one who provides for his wife and son, whom he badly wants to finish college, according to the GMA TV show KMJS.
Vino and three other men look for a spot to dig in the forest by poking the ground with a long steel bar. Once the ideal spot is found, they set up their equipment and dig a hole. They then fill the hole with water, and Vino dives into the pit wearing goggles to protect his eyes and nose, and he sucks on a tube attached to a compressor that pumps oxygen to him so he can breathe while submerged.
In the muddy pit, he scoops up underground soil that the other workers strain to find tiny bits of gold. However small the gold they find, they can sell it for a little over a thousand pesos, deduct the fuel cost for running their equipment, and divide the remainder among themselves as their income.
Vino is a one-of-a-kind bosero, as workers like him are called, because of his handicap. He amazingly finds tiny pieces of gold under the mud despite being blind for the last several years. He lost his vision due to his trade, as the retina of his eyes got detached from the constant exposure to the dirty soil.
