The fine touches of paintings they say are more beautiful when the painter uses his/her hands on the brush to stroke right but, that saying has been changed by an extraordinary landscape painter living with cerebral palsy, painting with the use of her feet.
Toma Onwunu is a landscape painter from Delta state, Nigeria. her paintings depict the beauty of nature .she captures nature at its finest on her canvas.she appreciates the creation of God despite the way she was created. To her, there is beauty in all things and everyone. she believes that there is ability in every disability and she is living proof of that.
Cerebral Palsy is a group of permanent movement disorder that appears in early childhood. The effects include stiff muscles, weak muscles, and poor coordination. It is caused by abnormal development or damage to parts of the brain that control movement, balance, and posture.
Growing up as a child with cerebral palsy is tough, being unable to do certain things for and by oneself. Attaining education as a child was difficult for Toma, it caused a frown from people. People saw her as a waste of time and money with the belief that education doesn’t excel in a disabled person. The only thing that should be given to them is caring until death.
Toma found strength in her disability with a strong belief in God. She pursued her Education relentlessly and attained her NCE certificate. Her disability opened the way to the extraordinary use of her legs; to feed herself and others, to hold and lift objects, operate her phone and paint wonderful pictures of nature.
Toma discovered her ability to paint through a word encouragement from a friend, who said to her she can do so much more with her legs. This discovery has helped Toma to feel more relevant in society. Now she feels can give back to society by adding more beauty to it through productivity and beautification of places with her paintings.
Painting with so many colours is a way of expressing herself, she says in our interview with her that ‘’painting is just like my voice’’. Painting helps her to speak in so many beautiful forms through images of nature. Toma has set a change in life that limits is of the mind not of the physical body.
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