Paw Prints

“If it’s what God called you to do, don’t let anyone discourage you from it.”   Tommy Hollenstein

March 10, 1985 – Canoga Park, California: It was the kind of beautiful spring afternoon that southern California is known for. After work that day, Tommy Hollenstein and a buddy rode their mountain bikes down a trail. Tommy failed to see the six-foot hole and crashed headfirst into the embankment. The impact broke his neck.

Immediately, Tommy was above the accident, looking down on his motionless body. He thought, “Oh my God, I’m dead. It’s my time to go.” Then he prayed, “God, please don’t take me now. Please give me a second chance.” He was back in his body as soon as he whispered the prayer.

Paramedics rushed 24-year-old Tommy to the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where doctors determined that he had severed his spinal cord at the C4/C5 vertebrae. For the rest of his life, he would be a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair.

Growing up in a Los Angeles suburb, Tommy had been a creative child who could build things with his hands. He wanted to be an artist. At 5, he began painting and selling his artwork to the children in the neighborhood for ten cents a painting. Later, when his parents refused to pay for art school, Tommy settled for a graphic design course at Santa Monica Community College and put his dream aside.

After the accident, Tommy spent three weeks in intensive care, followed by six months in rehab at Northridge. Aware of Tommy’s desire to become an artist, his recreational therapist tried to interest him in stick painting, using a small brush between his teeth to paint. It was too restrictive for Tommy and his face was too close to the canvas. “I was used to extreme sports like mountain biking, surfing, and skateboarding,” he recalled. “Stick painting wasn’t for me.”

Tommy had been a day away from completing a one-year police detective program when the accident occurred. After rehab, he worked as a private investigator for a year, but finding missing people wasn’t what he wanted to do. Two years after the accident, he got his first service dog, a yellow lab named Weaver. Thanks to Weaver, Tommy regained his independence. He moved out of his parent’s house and lived independently in an apartment.

Tommy and Weaver sold Science Diet dog food for a couple years and then medical products. Nothing satisfied Tommy. He had several more jobs before selling wheelchair-accessible vans. He was good at it, and the money allowed him to buy his first house. Tommy’s dream to be an artist was just that, though, a distant dream.

Tommy and Weaver were inseparable. When Tommy woke each morning, Weaver sat beside the bed, ready to carry out any of the 90 commands he knew. When the veterinarian informed Tommy that 15-year-old Weaver was dying, Tommy wanted something special on the wall for the two of them – something more than just a photo.

A few days later an idea came to him. With the help of a friend, Tommy placed a large canvas on the floor. The friend poured various colors of Behr house paint on the canvas, and Tommy ran through it with his wheelchair tires. Although reluctant, Weaver was eventually coaxed to walk through the paint alongside the wheelchair tracks. Tommy framed the special painting, a 4-foot by 4-foot canvas with paw prints alongside wheelchair tracks.

Tommy had not done anything artistically in almost two decades. Still a few days later, he felt God wanted him to begin painting with his wheelchair tires. By day he sold handicapped-accessible vans and at night painted with his wheelchair with the help of an assistant. It took Tommy almost five years and 50 rejections by galleries to display his artwork, but he was determined.

In 2005, to Tommy’s surprise, actor Joachin Phoenix and former Beatle Ringo Starr showed up in Los Angeles at his first art show. They bought most of his 10 paintings. Today, 64-year-old Tommy Hollenstein has a global following. His paintings are exhibited in art galleries worldwide. He has a group of celebrity clients who collect his work.

Tommy’s original painting of Weaver’s paw prints and his wheelchair tracks still hangs in his art studio. Weaver not only gave Tommy his independence, but he also helped his master and friend discover the dream Tommy thought was lost forever. “I thought I lost my creative gift when I lost the use of my hands,” says Tommy, “but I discovered my creativity was not in my hands, but in my heart. Sometimes your dreams turn out differently that you imagined.”