DAY 118

UNEXPECTED ART FORMS

The Art of Adaptation

DON BANIA, JR.

Although Don Bania has been drawing since early childhood, his style has drastically changed since 1970—he no longer uses his hands.

Shortly after graduating from high school, a devastating motorcycle crash left Don paralyzed from the shoulders down. After a dark period of drug and alcohol abuse, Don experienced a spiritual transformation at the age of 26 that awakened his zeal for life—and for drawing. He notes, “My brokenness made me aware of my desperate need for God.”

An easel was constructed to fit Don’s wheelchair, and he spent countless hours teaching himself to draw using only his mouth, relearning the skills that had lain dormant for seven years since the accident. Over the course of more than a year, the artist progressed from simple shapes and letters to complex designs.

Early on in his artistic career, Don opted for drawing with pencils and colored pastels, a method that allows him to mix his own colors. The relative convenience of this medium notwithstanding, Don typically invests upwards of 100 hours of painstaking labor in one drawing.

The hope and perseverance conveyed in Don’s drawings express the artist’s hard-tested conviction that “life is a precious gift...within every tragedy lies an opportunity”. —DJS