I'm A Blind Painter: Seeing Through The Darkness

As a kid the epilepsy often had me bedridden. I could always write a story to get out of the hospital bed blues and go to a different place. Once I lost my sight I couldn’t do that anymore.

I had always liked to read about painters, their techniques and theories. They used the same mentality and ideas employed by writers. In the past I’d read about painting and would apply it to my writing. Ironic how once I couldn’t continue writing I drifted to painting. I had to get my hands on something.

When I first started to paint I had been completely blind for about a year. It was a dark time. I used to be a very independent person. I couldn’t get out of my apartment much.

Not being able to write had me very depressed and that led me to want to do something with my hands. I was aiming for something visual because my vision had gone and I was so angry about it. I didn’t want it to be sculpture, which could also be felt. I chose painting so that when people saw my work they would realize that I can still perceive and understand. It was a way to show I still had vision and doubled as a place to vent my anger.

About six months after I began painting I became really calm. All that anger washed away and I saw that the painting was exactly what I needed. At first it was a way to let out the stuff I wasn’t so happy about, soon it became a way to celebrate the things that brought me joy.

One thing that really helped was my Orientation and Mobility Training, a course teaching visually-impaired persons how to adapt to their newly acquired condition.