Akiane Kramarik
Source : Google photo of Akiane Kramarik
We have heard of child prodigies in many countries who can do extraordinary things like singing, playing musical instruments, do complicated mathematics or painting. They are the gifted children who show their extraordinary talent at an age when most children play with their toys and babble incoherent words or may draw some crude sketches with their crayons that their parents show around with great pride.
Rarely such children amount to anything more than ordinary no matter what their parents think of them. They are not born with the gift that the prodigies have that sets them apart from others. Some children given the opportunity to learn to sing, play instruments or paint or do other things through tutoring, special schools in their late teen age period may show some promise but they are not called the prodigies.
The prodigies are rare. They manifest their talents at an early age that takes the world by surprise like the child called Akiane Kramarik in this blog that I was compelled to write as if she was demanding to be noticed. She did no such thing but a gifted child like her could never remain anonymous and unnoticed no matter where and under what circumstances she was born. At first such children are like rare uncut diamonds that people do not recognize but their brilliance bursts into the cognizance as if a diamond polisher brings it out in all its radiance and glory.
Their parents play the initial crucial role as mentor to the child who give her all the help she needs and encourage the prodigy to grow into his or her full potential. If they are poor then they try the best they can to provide such help like in the case of Akiane by making great sacrifices to do so.
Akiane was born poor in a family of other siblings in Idaho where her parents struggled to feed them, clothe them and provide the basic necessities for them because they were jobless most of the time and could barely keep their heads above water. The constant persecution by neighbors who called them atheist did not help them either but they struggled on and kept helping their gifted child Akiane no matter what difficulties they endured.
Akiane and her siblings wore shabby clothes, had no toys to play with so they made their own, slept huddled together to ward off cold weather and suffered all the deprivations the poor people suffer anywhere in the world but the harsh cold weather of Idaho made it worse. They did not complain and formed strong bonds with their struggling parents and siblings and got some lessons through home schooling.
At first people who saw the paintings of Akiane displayed in some local art galleries did not believe that it was done by a child because no one believed that a child could produce such art in such dazzling colors and in such a professional way that the professional artists take years to learn in expensive art schools.
But Akiane was an extraordinary child who knew by her instinct that colors to choose and how to mix them and apply to them to bring out most amazing results on canvas or paper. She would often paint for 20 hours without eating, sleeping or resting to the chagrin of her parents but they left her alone to do what she loved best. She said that she often had visions of her subject or saw them in the clouds or in the nature that she started to put on canvas. No one had ever taught her about color, the composition and the skill of sketching. She was born with this miraculous gift.
Once she had a vision that she must paint a portrait of Jesus but did not know what he could have looked like so she wished with all her heart to give her a model. The very next day a tall and bearded handsome fellow knocked on her door and said that he was a carpenter who was looking for work.
The child by instinct knew that her prayers were answered so she painted her first oil painting of the carpenter as Jesus and presented it to an agent to place it in an art gallery. The agent realizing the value and the sheer beauty of the painting promptly disappeared with it greatly shocking the child but she kept on painting and at the young age of 12 became the sole bread earner for her family. By this time the copies of her paintings were sold for thousands of dollar in various art galleries that brought her to the attention of Oprah Winfrey who literally introduced her to the world in her show.
Later other TV channels invited her as well so her name and fame spread worldwide.
Her parents became her full time managers and saved most of her original paintings although a few of the originals were sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Here is just one painting done by her that won her great acclaim but I have included her most famous artwork in the power point that you will enjoy watching below.
The link to the power point that highlights her art work
Source : Google photo of Akiane and her famous painting
