“Painting by mouth is no easy job but the masterpiece of it, is everything to me!” Yosef Bekele a painter born different
On Thursday December 5, ‘Art of Ethiopia’ a yearly art exhibition was opened in Sheraton Addis Hotel, where the works of 56 renowed and new artists were featured.
Various paintings are being showcased on the exhibition which would remain open for a week. The artists have tried to capture and depict various socio cultural, political and natural aspects of life through contemporary art scenes.
Yosef Bekele 47, joined the exhibitors by contributing 7 portraits of his masterpieces, which he painted using his mouth and legs.
“My works are mostly self-portraits. I give vent to these feelings or express myself via them,” he says.
Most of his works are fine contemporary paints of people on canvas with some missing body parts or missing face. Some of them are what ifs and if nots, showing the voids of being physically disabled and its challenges.
“I try to fill the void of my incompleteness in my paintings by drawing the things I never had like what would I look like if I had neck, shoulder or ear and I try to feel like as if I had them,” he chuckled.
Yosef was born and brought up in the heart of Addis Ababa in a quarter called Kazanchis. Yosef has serious problems with his legs and feet. Unfortunately, he is not in a position to use neither his arms nor his hands.
“It is really hard for me to move from place to place. Usually, I use taxi to move from and to, it is not always easy I need assistance. I need volunteers to lift me up to get in to a taxi, people may not always be handy cause when they look at me I may appear a normal guy,” Yosef said .
Ever since he was a baby, his mother used to carry him to the nearby St. Ourael Church and place him on the ground showing his disability. People used to shower them with alms. She used to carry him on her back and rove around churches where there were yearly religious celebrations and festivals during which massive presence of the faithful is registered.On such occasions people are in a good mood of supporting one another.
Given his conditions he never had the opportunity to attend regular formal schools as his peers but grew up in constraints. Later on as he grew a bit older into his adolescence his lower limb were a bit strengthened and he began to walk upright instead of crawling and that was good news for him and his family. He was very eager to learn and he began to attend some language school to acquaint himself with literature both Amharic as well as English.
He used to ask for written materials in magazines and newspapers so that he could make some progress in his language skills. But the big revolution in his life happened when he found out that disability was not an obstacle for success having seen an American lady who had made it as a painter. He talked to himself and decided to emulate her example.
He started to write and draw using his legs ever since. He used to draw flowers and cars and other pictures for kids before one happenstance which has led him to know that he can use also his mouth to draw.
“One day when I was at home with my family, I asked my sister to bring pencil and paper so that I can write with my legs as usual, and she put them unconsciously up on the table instead of the floor. I was calling her to come back and put them on the floor but a thought came in to me. Why don’t I try to move it to the floor myself and when I took the pencil and hold it in my mouth I felt like writing and I did and I then I knew I can better draw with my mouth than my leg,” he recalls the incident.
Yosef then, wanted to enrol in art school and learn the fundamental sketch and drawing skills. He headed to Abyssinia Art School, one of the few art schools in Addis where they told him to bring a 10th or 12th certificate in order to get registered. He told them that he don’t have any certificate as he was never enrolled in any formal academic education because of his disability.
The director for the school told him that it’s against the rules of the school and even if registered to attend class he won’t be graduated. “I told the director that ‘I do not need the art school certificate. I just want to acquire the skills and it is okay if I do not graduates.’ The director then make me to sign a declaration that states I won’t be graduated but only take the course and allowed me to enrol.
“After ten months of staying in the art school, seeing my effort and my desire to upgrade my skills the school let me graduate because at that time I got skills. I managed to sketch and measure using my eyes unlike other students who can use their hands. I sketch using my legs and then make the inkling with my mouth. I discovered my own style of contemporary art and the ever mounting positive feedback was unexpected to me,”
I get lots of positive comments from people around me and visitors.
He started exhibition before five years exhibited his paints which most of them are portrait of himself.
As the saying goes, where there is a will there is a way, Yosef’s willingness and passion for art has led him to become an artist praised by many. He succeeded to prove that disability is not an excuse for inability but a cause.
Yosef is married and have three children which he support and educate by selling his paintings. “My first born is 22 years old. She is a student in Adama university pursuing civil engineering, while my second born is also in college and the little one is in elementary school. I am grateful for Almighty who blessed me with such family,” a smile lit his face.
Yosef also, tutors at the Abyssinia art school. “I don’t consider myself as a teacher because I consider myself a student picking skills each passing day. And I still have no studio to retreat to so as to engross in painting with undivided attention. My house which I share with my wife and kids is not too comfortable to work on. So I had to go to the Abyssinia Painting school every day for that.
Most of Yosef‘s works are sold in such exhibitions. “Often, I am showered with appreciation and admirations but absence of much local buyers is disheartening. I guess local visitors love art as much as foreigners but foreigners have more financial freedom. So far, many from England, Canada, South Korea, among others, have taken my work Hotels are also my regular buyers.”
Yosef has a plan to held solo exhibition in the near future.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 15 December 2019
BY FASICA BERHANE
