LOGAN, Utah — Many remember “Hey Diddle Diddle,” the nursery rhyme in which the cow jumped over the moon. Well, a Logan art studio is helping artists of diverse abilities do the same.
“This is one of the greatest things ever, to be able to participate in a place like this,” said artist John Beard. “Not only do I see other people who have other disabilities and changes in their life, they’re coping with it and they’re doing wonderful with it.”
Beard was a competitive swimmer before his legs were amputated in 2013.
“I ended up in a coma for six months and they tried to save my legs, but just didn’t succeed,” Beard said Monday.
While he was forced to leave the water, Beard decided to pick up a paint brush with his wife at the Jump the Moon Art Studio & Gallery a couple years ago.
“There are artists out there who need a place like this, who need the right tools and opportunity and space to really be creative and express themselves,” explained Jump the Moon founder Michael Bingham.
Bingham believes the two most important days are the day you’re born and the day you find your purpose. He found his purpose by creating a non-profit art studio for everyone.
“I taught high school for 11 years and I had a lot of students who had disabilities, my special needs students,” he recalled. “I just started dreaming of a studio where we could spend more time and devote more energy to finding ways to help them create their own art.”
Artists at the studio use anything and everything, from paint brushes to pendulums to power chairs to create art that matters to them
“What we do here is we make it so artists can do the impossible,” Bingham said. “So their jet pack might be a power wheelchair that is a painting machine, or a power pendulum, remote control pendulum, that is their way they can accomplish something they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”
Bingham has created an art community for everyone to explore their inner child, with he and Beard hoping more people become encouraged to pick up their own paint brush.
“People overcoming their own challenges to be able to make something beautiful and huge and wonderful,” he shared. “It’s just, it’s hard to explain the joy that comes from that.”
