17-y-o born without hands creating beautiful paintings

For 17-year-old Tyrece Johnson, being born without hands and with shortened legs has never stopped him from pursuing his passion for art.

Tucking a paintbrush between his neck and shoulder, Johnson has steadily developed his talent, one stroke at a time, and now has his sights set on pursuing tertiary education. The recent graduate of Belair High School in Mandeville, Manchester, shared that his dream is to turn his passion into a career.

“Occupation-wise, I want to be a graphic designer and if I get to go to Edna [Manley College] I would pursue visual arts and graphic design,” he said. For Johnson, visual arts come naturally despite the physical challenges he has had to navigate. He told THE WEEKEND STAR that his love for art began at an early age but grew stronger when he entered high school. Without arms to hold a brush or pencil, Johnson explained that he had to find his own way to explore his passion.

“I hold my pencil and brush between my shoulders and neck and I don’t find it difficult for painting. The first time I tried it was just fun for me because I like creating stuff and I realised in second form,” he explained.

What may appear difficult to many has gradually become second nature to Johnson. His technique requires patience, precision and concentration, but he has learnt to work with what he has rather than focus on what he does not.

“I just use my shoulders to hold the brush firmly, and for typing, I use my lips or I hold the pencil to type,” he said. Johnson said that much of his inspiration comes from the world around him.

“I can’t paint from memory so I try to replicate something and I just really like to paint,” he said. His journey, however, has also been one of surprise and pride for his mother, Kameshia Jordine, who watched her first-born son discover a talent she never knew he possessed.

“When he showed me for the first time, I was shocked and I asked him who draw it and he said him, and told him he has to draw it again let me see because I didn’t see him. When I saw him, I was like ‘Then a when you learn to draw?’ I was just shocked,” she said.

Her shock was partly because of how far her son had come despite the challenges he faced from birth. Doctors, she recalled, once told her that Johnson wouldn’t even be able to stand up or walk.

“I feel proud and happy about my work because I was able to express my creativity and make something that I enjoy,” Johnson said. In a video shown to THE WEEKEND STAR, Johnson carefully grips a paintbrush between his neck and shoulder blade, using his body with precision to guide each stroke across the canvas. When he needs to change position, he effortlessly rolls the brush across his chest, as if switching hands, before dipping it back into the paint and continuing his work. But what has now become a familiar process still amazes Johnson.

“I feel proud of myself because when I now put something on the canvas, I am shocked that it actually comes out the way I want it to be,” he said.

Johnson pursued visual arts along with five other subjects in CSEC while at Belair, and said he is now awaiting his results. The challenge, however, is that his path to tertiary education remains uncertain. For Johnson to attend school in the Corporate Area, he would need a shadow education needs assistant, someone to assist him throughout the school day. He had one at Belair, Sherine Blair, but that institution is a government institution.

“We would have to find someone to pay to be with him and that’s not possible right now because a minimum wage me work,” said Jordine.

For the mother of three, who lives with her family in Mandeville, the distance and financial demands have created another hurdle. But she has encouraged Johnson to consider using his art as another pathway.

“He told me he wants to go to work and I have to tell him I don’t think he can manage but I told him to do his painting and sell them. I tell him he can do stuff like that and just have events where people can come and view and purchase that would be much easier,” she said.

And while Johnson awaits his CSEC results and faces uncertainty about what comes next, his determination he said will not change,

“I am excited to pursue my arts further because I want to improve my skills, learn new techniques and create even more art work in the future,” he said.