I paint when I need a challenge

- Who cares about physical limitations? Art makes me live in a limitless world

- Wheelchair-bound Odyss Craig

- Can a person paint without using his hands? Odyss Craig used a brush mounted on an easel as a mouthpiece and began to paint while leaning directly on the arms of a wheelchair.

- Pastiyo mein kho gaya hai aadmi,

Kitana chhota ho gaya hai aadmi,

Is liye shaitaniyat ka jor hai,

Adami mein so gaya hai Adami.

The flow of life takes people from where to where! The pain of the present is often lessened by the memory of past affections. The sweet memories of the past melt away the pain of his present, and in the same way, Odyss Craig, living in constant agony, has his past constantly in front of him!

Mother's love had wrapped Odis Craig's siblings at that time in such a way that even after mother's departure, those siblings were always bound to each other with close affection. There is no end to the conversations with the brothers and sisters of the gangs chasing each other on horseback, while on the other hand, the joyous toil together to harvest cotton and sugarcane from the fields is not forgotten.

Odis Craig says he lived on a farm from first grade to fifth grade. The farm is his world. When he was eleven years old, the farm house where his family lived caught fire and the family was forced to move to the city, but Odis Craig did not like the city air. Hence, after completing his high school studies, he directly went for training in the Navy. Here, Craig studied to become a mechanic for eight years and spent the last four years working at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego. During his career here, he cycled long distances and played his favorite game of tackle football. He liked the naval work very much and thought that he wanted to work in the navy for four more years.

This incident happened almost forty years ago. Odis Craig played football with his Navy buddies. At this point he ran into an opponent, but took a wrong turn and broke Craig's third and fourth cervical vertebrae, knocking him down from the shoulders. He was paralyzed from the neck down and his whole life changed.

In fact cervical spine injury is one of the most serious of all spinal injuries. This vertebra forms the middle of the cervical spine, near the base of the neck. It controls the function of the body from the shoulders down. When Craig has to enter a physical rehabilitation center and is told by many that his whole life is over, he remembers Christopher Superman.

This Christopher Reeve played the role of Superman in the 1970s-1980s with great style and his performance had a great charisma in the cinema. He fell down while riding and became paralyzed. Paralyzed from the neck down, Superman also had difficulty breathing, requiring him to carry a respirator with him at all times. Even in such a state, Superman proved his role on the screen of the film on the stage of life. He continued acting and directing. Wrote two books of his autobiography. He worked for the environment, human rights and artistic freedom of expression. He also campaigned for spinal cord injury research and better insurance for people with disabilities.

He headed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and also established a research center. It is impossible to predict how far Christopher's acting career would have gone had he not suffered a horse-riding accident and become paralyzed. He would go on to play various roles in both films and plays. Also, established himself as an influential actor on the film screen.

Thus, Superman Christopher Reeve with a severe disability did not accept the defeat of life. As the past merges with the present, it happened to Odyss Craig, similar to the 'Man of Steel' Christopher Reeve. He was playing tackle football at the base with his Navy buddies when he suffered this serious injury.

Someone suggested to him that to get out of this injury, you should do some art-work in a creative way. He enrolled in one semester class at the University of California for eleven years and in 2012, at the age of sixty-one, became known as an expert specializing in drawing and painting. After completing his postgraduate studies, he started creative work in the field of painting.

Can a person paint without using his hands? Odyss Craig used a brush mounted on an easel as a mouthpiece and began to paint while leaning directly on the arms of a wheelchair. At one time he was identified as the only disabled artist in his classroom and in the community of painters, but gradually everyone became interested in his art and some even asked him how are you painting?

On arrival, Odyss Craig would reply, 'I'm just trying to be a man like you.' His enthusiastic smile and positive thinking touched everyone. Gradually, he acquired great skill in sketching prominent figures in the public life of African American society. In every shelf of his house, he has placed different works of art and some people specially come to his house and take a photo tour. His positive ideology is such that he says, 'Knowledge is power' and goes outside his campus to persuade the youth to get higher education.

Someone asked him, 'Are you filling classes with so many physical limitations?' So in response he says, 'You should attend classes like me. Look, what classes I'm taking.'

Craig, a sixty-one-year-old veteran, uses a mouthpiece attached to an easel, attached to his wheelchair, which enables him to put brush to canvas and pencil to paper. How can one forget that field of childhood? The story of Navlikakaar Dhumketu 'Govind's farm' may be remembered here. He himself lived on farms in the state of South Carolina in his early life. He has been making drawings of rural farms and titled his exhibition: 'Life on the Farm'.

A book prepared from his drawings is being prepared by his teachers and classmates. Craig is working on the narrative portion of the book, which is expected to debut online next fall. Craig has received a university grant fund and Craig describes his art journey, saying, 'Each of my paintings tells a story.' Craig's son has taken time off work to paint at his exhibitions.

More than fifty paintings are arranged in this exhibition and Kevin Stewart, who studied with him - Magee says, 'Odis is a remarkable figure. He has reached a place in his work that most people never reach. He has memory and certainty as two prominent values, and since he works on the basis of this memory, when he paints a scene, it is as if he is standing and looking at it instead of remembering it.'

While another colleague, Patrick, is incorporating elements of oral history into Craig's performances with folk songs and instruments. Today, Odis Craig, who studies at California State University, is enjoying his artwork as a living person, and Odis says, 'I paint when I want a challenge.'

anecdote

Palmer became a man in a world of seduction

A businessman landed at the hotel. In his haste to get off, he forgot to ask the hotel fare.

After that, he asked for the bill before leaving the hotel after packing his luggage. Seeing the bill, he was shocked. He did not imagine that the hotel would be so expensive.

The businessman went to the hotel counter. Talked, but nothing happened. In that case, his eyes fell on the board on the counter.

It was written on the board, 'You have nothing left, right?'

The trader told the manager at the counter, 'This board is completely wrong. Instead of this another type of text should be written on the board.'

The manager said, 'We have placed this board for the benefit of the customers. Before sending him away from here, nothing is left in the room where he landed, so that Utna2 does not have to face trouble after leaving here. This is our intention to truly serve the customers expressed by the writing on the board.'

The merchant smiled and said, 'Your service spirit is good, but if you really want to serve the customer, you should write on board 52, You have nothing left, right?'

We were reminded of this because shopping habits in the country have increased to such an extent that when a person steps out of a shopping mall, his pockets are empty! A customer is attracted by different advertisements by making enticing advertisements and then the customer attracted by that advertisement buys three items instead of one item!

Once upon a time the country had the glory of living with minimum necessities. Today it is considered to live with much more than necessary and to take even if not necessary. As a result of this, the customer continues to buy, the economy continues to run, but the financial condition of that customer remains poor!

Today, a person goes out every four hours after going to a shopping mall. Values ​​or prices of all other things went up, but no one thought of the value of time here.