Jeffrey Owen Hanson, 21 has created over 1,400 beautiful paintings and his undeniable talent has earned him fans in the likes of business magnate Warren Buffett and singer Elton John. But what makes his talent even more impressive is the fact that Hanson is blind.
The young man from Overland Park, Kansas has been diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder which caused a brain tumor that left him legally blind, according to CBS News. Add to that, Hanson also suffers from a few other physical and mental issues.
But Hanson is not one to sulk in despair. "I never cried during chemotherapy or radiation. I definitely smiled my way through," he shared. This could be because of his growing passion for art, which started during his treatment. His mother Julie gave him watercolours and urged him to paint so that he would not dwell on his sickness.
Hanson's creations were lovely, but his parents did not think much of it. "To me, it was nothing more than kid art," said his father Hal. "I didn't see any genius to it. It would be something that you would put on the refrigerator with a magnet and forget it in a couple of days, and it would make it to the trash can."
But Julie did not have the heart to throw her son's creations, so she did something else. "I started using his note cards for thank-you notes during chemotherapy and radiation," she said. "But as I started to do that, my friends would say, 'Do you have any extras? I would love some of those.'"
That's when the family decided to sell his paintings in their driveway, and the rest is history. Now, Hanson's paintings sell for at least $4,000 each, and Hanson has decided to donate over $1 million of what he has earned to more than 100 organisations, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Children's Tumor Foundation.
"I thought it would be good to give back to the world and not use it for myself," Hanson earlier told USA Today. "My art makes people happy."
