Overcoming Physical Disability Through Art
Tonight’s episode of Belize on Reel is a profile of a well-known painter in San Pedro whose life at the age of twenty-eight changed forever when he was the victim of a vicious stabbing. Forty-five-year-old Kirt Cruz makes a living for himself by selling his artwork. In 2006, he was stabbed in the back on Independence Day, an injury that left him paralyzed. We’ll show you how he’s been able to recover and use that experience as motivation to pursue the establishment of an art studio on La Isla Bonita. Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
When Kirt Cruz attended Independence Day parade on the island in September 2006, the San Pedro resident did not foresee that taking part in the annual celebration would change his life forever. Like many others, he set out from his home that morning to enjoy the revelry that was taking place in the center of town. Little did he know that something terrible would befall him.
Kirt Cruz
Kirt Cruz, Artist/Painter
“Originally, I am from the Westside and I used to paint with my right hand and then I was in a parade and I got hurt in the spinal cord.”
Cruz was stabbed in the back by an unnamed assailant. That injury rendered him paralyzed and he remained wheelchair-bound for a period of time before he was able to feel his hand. Movement in that arm sparked something in Cruz’s mind.
Kirt Cruz
“After six months, I started moving my hands and I managed to overcome the disability by using artwork, painting for two years left-handed gave me the ability to get up and walk out of my wheelchair and then I eventually overcome the disability and now I walk with my sticks and I don’t use no wheelchair no more and the art has made me come very far because it gave me the ability, the strength to overcome the disability and the will to get up, you know, and not just sit down and think I am paralyzed.”
Kirt’s story is one of will and strength of mind to overcome adversity. As a well-known artist on the island and someone whose livelihood, in the first instance, depended on the use of his right arm, he has learned to adapt. In doing so, he also found the motivation to keep pushing forward, despite his physical limitations.
Kirt Cruz
“I am grateful because the artistic skill that I had made me be mentally strong and the art made me focus. It didn’t make me think that I can’t do nothing or anything, you know, I just started, when I started moving my hands, I started painting with a easel on my chest and after two years, I started walking on my sticks. And it was kind of challenging, but the mind is a very powerful thing and we need to put it to work and once we have a skill or an ability to do something, we just can’t let it go just like that, we need to put it to good work and use, you know. Use your skills you have.”
With that, Kirt decided to continue with his passion. Having learned to use his left hand, the painter set up shop at a storefront on Barrier Reef Drive and returned to work. Soon enough, locals and visitors alike took note of his immense talent and began commissioning his works. Today, he’s adding the finishing touches on a piece that he is doing for a repeat customer, a visitor who is arriving on the island later this week.
Kirt Cruz
“The turtle is a tattoo that the lady had on her feet and she gave me a picture of it. So I did that for her in the water and the dogs are her dogs that she has in the U.S. and she made me paint them on the beach because she wanted the dogs to be on the beach. This is what I do in San Pedro, people come and they get my number and they give me a picture and I paint it for them and then, you know, it makes the feeling of coming to Belize more exciting, you know, people get to meet artists, they get to see the artwork in progress. They get to see what Belize is all about, the culture and everything.”
Kirt is taking that very same enthusiasm and using it to establish an art studio in the years to come. He is optimistic that this initiative will help others in similar conditions and even persons who aren’t disabled, but share a love for visual arts.
Kirt Cruz
“In the future, in probably the next four to five years, I should have my studio open to teach people with or without disability to paint. It’s going to be for everyone, for old and for young people, people with autism, people with disabilities could come and they can paint for free, sit down, eat something and, you know, just getting a disabled person out of their house and bringing them to do artwork is very important because it brings them out of that enclosed environment which is very stressful for a person disabled to be locked up everyday and staying in one room and not doing anything to occupy their minds, trying to find something to do is very hard.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
