This is my son Arthur, it is a detail of a digital painting I did with him as a model, I am a classic painter who makes oil paintings and digital paintings. Arthur has Down Syndrome, deafness and a few years ago he lost his sight in one eye, cataract, however he had a displacement of retina severe and the operation is merely aesthetic now. In the last few years he developed the custom of looking at his hands, in 2018 photographed him and I created a digital painting around him, as if he were a type of being who came from another world to transform lives with his love.
Lately I’ve been wondering what my son’s life will be like if I don’t guarantee his future now. This pandemic affected him too much, we live near the beach and he loves to swim, no one in my family knows how to swim, only Arthur.
At home, he loved to take a shower, he went to the bathroom all the time and if we didn’t go there to intervene that moment he stays there with his hair and body on the shower all day, experineted all the shampoos, liquid soaps and everything he imagines that will leave him perfumed…
…But now,he doesn’t want to shave anymore, he doesn’t let cut his nails, it doesn’t allow anyone to even touch it at times, it’s distressing. So today I managed to get him to the bathroom with all the affection I could, he is a 26-year-old adult who is very attached to me, fortunately he went with me to take a shower.
Then I put the mirror in wall of the bathroom where the shower was working with strong and a litle cold water with me and him sitting on the floor, he has no sense of modesty, shame, anything like that, but he has sense of the love we have for him, because he is the image of love for me,put soap on the floor and I put cream on his hair,
I was shaving his beard little by little and he was allowing it to make for him. In the mirror he saw himself, observing, at times he cried with the “howls” ( Arthur is deaf and does not speak but produces sounds to express himself) that he verbalized his uneasiness and little by little seeing that it was beautiful, he finally smiled end hugged me. Today, I am trying to get back to making my paintings oil and digital, however I cannot stop the work I do during the week which is to sell a type of mini salted pies that in Brazil we call “Empadinhas”, here in Candeias, Jaboatão dos Guararapes Pernambuco, in the parking lot from Mercado Extra, I became famous locally, because I do crazy things to do sales from Tuesday to Friday, before was sales from Sunday to Sunday, with them I pay Arthur and Jane’s health plans because she has high pressure and diabetes ,diabetes of so much sugar she ate, she is a Chef, so you can already imagine my headache with her. I’m looking for everything that I can use my talents to capitalize on, like this page and contributions on Paypal on my website www.ancerg.com , because if I manage to stabilize one little can I even have more days to paint. I have no idea if anyone will read this, but I wrote with all my heart.
Best regards…
Ancerg
