culture

“Work is not only done by hand. You can draw and write with your mouth.”

This is what Pak Son Gyong, a girl living in the township of Jangphung County, Kaesong City, says.

Pencil lead breaks

Son Gyong was fond of playing with a pencil in her childhood. Whenever she drew a dotted line on a piece of paper with a pencil, the pencil looked like a mysterious toy to her.

Since beginning to learn letters, she practised penmanship with pencil. She would picture herself becoming a dancer in pencil drawing. 

Then one day she had an accident and was rushed to the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital. The little girl, who had been at the crossroads of life and death, was barely restored to life after over 40 days of intensive treatment.

But she could not escape panplegia caused by cervical spine fractures and cerebral contusion. At that time she was seven years old.

Though others kept leading a happy life while singing of it outdoors, she only imagined all of it silently on the bed.

Even the pencil, which she had regarded as her close friend, seemed to shun her. It slipped out of her twisted hand and fell to the floor, its lead being broken with a snap.  

Endless tears ran down her cheeks.

With second hand

“A germinating bud is sure to rise finally even though it is buried in earth. You, too, have to live like that,” said Son Gyong’s parents, farmers.

Afterwards, she calmed herself. Then curious questions, rich imagination and fantastic ideas began to spring up again in her mind. She wanted to express all of them with drawings.

But she could not move her hands.

Suddenly, she took the pencil in her mouth.

To draw for a long time while lying face down required patience, self-possession and delicacy and she had to develop the ability to contrast and judge matters and phenomena. 

She kept drawing like that almost every day.

Her parents’ expectations of her increased with the passage of time and many reference books on drawing were piled up on her bed. On rest days all members of her family modelled for her.

When her first picture was completed after her painstaking efforts, though poor, she exclaimed with joy, “I, too, can draw!”

Hope reflected in picture

The news that Son Gyong drew a picture spread throughout the village in a moment.

Villagers immediately visited her home and expressed their amazement and admiration at the passion and drawing ability of the girl with disabilities.

Looking at them, she felt more confident that she, too, could do something. Then she was filled with joy of and optimism about life. 

Afterwards, she acquired various techniques of sketch and created many works under the guidance of Ri Myong Guk, fine art teacher of Jangphung Senior Middle School in Jangphung County.

She became a smilely girl.

Neighbours, villagers and friends frequented her home to encourage and give pleasure to her, teachers of the school made efforts for the development of her intelligence and artistic ability and doctors and nurses of the Okryu Children’s Hospital and children’s hospital and general hospital in the city of Kaesong always took care of her health and treated her.

She drew a sketch reflecting the kind-hearted people.

She titled the sketch “The Story of Our Home”. It won a prize at a national sketch festival held in February this year. The work of the 19-year-old girl with disabilities drew the attention of visitors at the festival.  

“My ability developed thanks to kind-hearted people sharing pains and joy with me. In future I will become a good artist and present my work at the world stage,” she said to the people who extended congratulations to her.

She now puts her heart and soul into drawing full of hope for the future.