A HEART for ART

A 43-year-old man dipped his brush into the paint before brushing it on a giant canvas, colouring the unfinished portrait of a monk standing in his Seksilpha Studio of Art in Thabo district of Nong Khai province.

His painting looked so real and perfect. His brush strokes were professional like a master artist. The difference is that the brush was not in his hand. Instead, he held it in his mouth.

Tanong Khotchompoo is his name. He has used his mouth to paint for more than two decades since his arms and legs stopped functioning at the age of 18.

But instead of sinking into grief and hopelessness, Tanong embraced his fate with a brave and strong heart. He never gave in to the misfortune that befell him. When he knew he could no longer use his hands, he decided to make use of his mouth, which still functions perfectly. With great effort, Tanong has fought through illness and misery, proving himself as a respected artist. He never lets his illness stop him from reaching for his dreams.

Tanong paints for a living. His distinguished talent and never-say-die spirit has earned him a reputation both locally and internationally. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, he has journeyed to many places to demonstrate his talent, teach painting skills, and speak at various seminars and institutes about his life experience that always inspire people to fight on.

"I've journeyed out, not because I want to be accepted by others, but to learn from them. Each student I've taught, and every person I've been involved with are all good sources of learning," said Tanong.

 

Perhaps it's an artistic soul that has guided him through the days of suffering.

"Art and nature teaches me to look at things with a broad perspective. Everything has more than one side, and so does life. When a problem comes to us, it may get worse if we just look at it from one angle. But if we look to the other sides, we'll understand its complexity and can better handle it," he said.

An artist from childhood

Tanong has shown artistic talent even before starting school. As a boy he always enjoyed drawing and painting anything he saw, though he never went to any art school. Born to a poor family, the only materials he could find initially were a small wooden board and used chalk collected from the school lawn.

When he was sent to school, his artistic talent shone. Schoolteachers often hired him to draw illustrations for their teaching materials. They also gave him paper and water colours. The more he practised, the more he mastered his skills. The boy had discovered himself and dreamt of becoming an artist.

Fate can be so unkind

 

At school, Tanong was a bright student. Not only was he good at painting, but he also did well in other subjects, including maths and English. He won top scores in every class exam and was also a school athlete.

But illness struck when he was 12. The weakness consumed his legs, little by little, until they became so heavy he could hardly lift them up. Soccer matches at school, once a favourite activity, became tiring, and he could never catch up with his friends. The stairs of the school building became too high to climb, and the 20-minute walk from home to school took increasingly longer, from half an hour to one hour, one-and-a-half, and finally two hours. By sixth grade, he realised his legs could no longer carry him to school. He decided to quit, and became confined to a much smaller world at home, under a leaky roof.

Fate was also unkind to his younger sister who suffered the same illness. His father once took them to Siriraj hospital, but before they got a diagnosis from doctors, they had to discontinue the treatment because the family was too poor to travel from Nong Khai to Bangkok.

His symptoms worsened. The illness continued to spread from his legs to his arms. His limbs completely stopped functioning when he was 18.

 

"There were times I felt discouraged, but once I saw my sister, I told myself I had to be strong. If I had shown my weakness, my sister would have been disheartened," he said.

Tanong's fighting spirit

Though disability confined him to the family home, Tanong has never stopped learning. He loves reading all kinds of books. The school teachers kept hiring him to draw the illustrations for their teaching kits, and Tanong has never grown tired of painting. Indeed, it has helped him to forget all his pain and suffering.

When his arms became too weak, he used his mouth to raise his hands up to the canvas. When his hands could no longer work, he turned to his mouth.

"I heard the story of a foreign disabled artist who used his mouth to paint, and it became a light at the end of the tunnel," said Tanong.

He tried the new method. It was hard and a little painful at first. But once he adopted his own technique and got used to it, everything went smoothly.

 

"It was such a great moment when I knew I could still go on, like the sky was opening up for me. My mouth would hold the brush tightly like a hand, my tongue working to turn the brush over, and my neck would move freely to guide it to the direction that I want. Now that I'm used to it, painting by mouth is even faster than using a hand," he said.

People looking at some of his work may wonder how he could reach the top of a giant painting which stretches 2m high. The artist smiled, and said coyly, "That's why people call me the artist who turned the world upside down."

In the cradle of his family

Tanong said he has survived those years of pain and suffering through strong support from his family. His father had taken him to any traditional healers whom he believed could cure the illness, even though all the treatments failed.

His family have never been tired of looking after him. Since the day he couldn't move, they acted as his arms and legs.

 

In younger days, his mother would help to prepare the painting materials, mixing the paints for him. When he was to paint a bee, and couldn't imagine how it looked in detail, his mum went out and came back with two bees for her son. When he began his mouth painting, his mother managed to make the bamboo brushes for him.

"She would shave every piece of bamboo wood, rounding and boiling it to make the brush light-weighted and safe for my mouth. Every brush my mum made tasted really sweet, and it always reminded me of her great love," he said.

At times when his mother was away for work, his younger brother would take care of him. The boy would wake him up every morning, towel his body, and carry him to his working table near the window before he went to school. At noon, his niece and nephew would come back from school to take him to the toilet and move him to another corner to change his posture.

"I was thankful for all of them. Taking care of the disabled like me is a heavy task, like each of them has two bodies to look after. But they never complained, and were always willing to help me," he said.

The turning of his life

After Tanong's story was published in Chewit Rak (Love life) magazine several years ago, help's poured in to his family. The artist became better known to the public, and many of his works sold fast. His paintings vary from human portraits, to paddy fields and natural scenes. His earnings were enough to pay off the house mortgage, and improve his family's quality of life.

Tanong credits all the pain and suffering for shaping him into the person he is today.

"A great force is needed to overcome all that hardship and the fear that lay deep in my heart. It's not a miracle though. Indeed, it's the pain, the illness and all the difficulties that led me to inner beauty and happiness," he said.

Relate Search: Tanong Khotchompoo, Seksilpha Studio, Nong Khai