All About Art Features Blind
Artists
By Herb Drill
On many occasions, eyesight has little or nothing to do with vision,
especially for artists who are visually-impaired. From Gorham, ME
to Minneapolis, MN visually-impaired artists who have exhibited their
work and won awards in the process will tell you that this is true.
All five of the following artists had their work invited to be shown
at the All About Art at MossRehab juried exhibit.
Minneapolis’ Tara
Arlene Innmon won with Riding the MTC#5 with the top of the frame
having a dark gray pastel band with a mossy green hue. The bottom
half of the frame is a black and gray mass with smudges of light
gray and occasional black curving lines. Between the two dark masses
is a bright band divided into rectangular sections of varying proportions
by vertical lines in black, chalky gray and white. The left rectangle
is almost white at the top with a faint turquoise layer. A shape,
like a human figure's upper torso, is dark gray with faint edges
that merge into the darker lower portion of the picture. The next
rectangle, along with a continuation of the white/turquoise from
the previous section, is filled with a rubbing of peachy orange
mixed with darker gray. This smudged peach patch spreads to the
next rectangle, filling it almost entirely except for a small line
of white at the top. The last rectangle on the far right has the
remnants of peach hues overtaken by a cloudy patch of greenish
gray.
Ms. Innmon relates, “I
want to show what the world looks like to a person who is losing
vision and how the feelings of grief and anger lead to transformation
and acceptance. It was like being in a fog that got thicker and
thicker. The definition of beauty changed for me from sharp, brightly-colored
visual images to lights and colors with no shape, then to the tactile
sense of shape and texture. I believe many of my dreams have universal
elements that assist in the process of growth and healing. I have
painted these images and now write them into stories.”
Dayton, OH’s Martha Cowden has been totally blind for 30 years.
She notes: “Since I have no vision, all of my work is tactile.
Texture is a very important part of my work. I enjoy the entire process
used to create my hand-built pottery pieces. Manipulating the spinning
yarn is very satisfying. I use clay, natural fibers, and handspun
yarn in various combinations to achieve different effects, and I
rely totally on my sense of touch to create one-of-a-kind pieces.”
Her Each by Each piece
is woven of off-white and gold fiber and could be used to hold
dried flowers. It’s shaped like a square-sided
vase with a narrow neck and a somewhat wider lip above the neck.
The four corners are covered with white, felted strips which reach
from the neck to the bottom. The flat surfaces between the strips
are woven of gold and white yarn and fiber in various textures. One
side has thin yearn pulled out to create loops on the surface; another
has soft, white tufts reminiscent of small cotton balls. The neck
and lip are gold and white yarn.
On the other hand, Carmelo
Gannello, from Oak Park, IL, is known for his paintings of parks,
marine life, and city living. The repetition of circles in his
work symbolizes the cataracts that have transformed his vision.
He recalls that “when I became blind, I had to
change my thinking. I remember going to the art institute of Chicago
and [my] teacher, Capsalas was his name, told me, `Why don’t
you do what you see?’ I said, `I see floaters’ and I
thought no one is going to be interested in floaters, and I did one
and I liked it so much. I continued doing eye floaters. I thought
that would be an ideal thing for me to do, after all, I’m visually
impaired, so how can I explain to people what I see? I saw these
floaters, they were real to me. He put the floaters in the midst
of a piece he calls The Forest, where things “aren’t
really specific. The line isn’t strong, it’s fuzzy, the
haze, in a night forest. I tried to get that effect.”
Gannello lost his sight at
the age of 36 and used to be a regionalist painter, “but as
my eye condition worsened due to detached retinas and Macular Degeneration,
I now see circles and blobs in my vision. I use the circles to inspire
my work, turning my art into the theme, Art of the Eye. Today, my
work is enchanted by circles, and because I really see them in my
vision, I capture them as they float by. I work them into my art
in such a way as to make them attractive and an asset to what I am
doing, proving that anyone with a handicap can execute art.
And do
it well, too, including the somewhat south of Minneapolis, Tracy
Mosman, of Indianapolis, says the “activity of drawing
has long been a personal favorite. I think it has always charmed
me because of its simplicity and versatility. It never stops providing
me with both pleasure and ideas.”
Meanwhile, Frank Valliere,
of Gorham, ME, had his oils on pastels Workin’ on My Tan used
to promote the opening reception for A Matter of Perception 2005
Fifth Juried Exhibition by Artists with Disabilitie sponsored by
the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies. A supporting
display was related to VSA Arts of Maine, which provides a community-based
opportunity for artists with disabilities living in Maine to gain
artistic exposure and exhibition experience.
I'm legally blind with
acute myopia,” Valliere explains. “If
one must have a disability, this is one of the easy ones to deal
with, especially for an artist. You get great colors and pretty good
clarity. It's just that everything is so much smaller. ...When it
comes to driving cars and catching baseballs, I'd rather have regular
vision, but then I'd just be a regular guy. Roughly half of the known
artists throughout history have had some sort of visual impairment.
The ability to produce art is a basic human function. My biggest
problem is figuring out how to be an artist and useful to society
at the same time.”
In 1979, All About Art at MossRehab was the brainchild of a group
of MossRehab volunteers and staff members, who wanted to make a very
strong statement about the talents and commitment of people with
disabilities. Friends of Moss Auxiliary took the exhibit on as part
of its advocacy program. MossRehab is part of the Albert Einstein
Healthcare Network and is a 147-bed facility in Philadelphia. MossRehab
offers comprehensive care to people with conditions including stroke,
brain injury, orthopedic and musculoskeletal disabilities, spinal
cord dysfunction, pulmonary disorders, amputations, and other forms
of disability.
All About Art will run until mid-January. Art exhibit funds benefit
the Family Hospitality Suite at MossRehab at Elkins Park, PA.
Herb Drill, is a charter member of the now international in membership
Society of American Business Editors and Writers. His e-mail address
is herbertdrill@cs.com
