[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Painting from her heart and mind

[Shelley L. Rhodes]

Oregonian - Portland,OR,USA
Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Painting from her heart and mind

By ERIC MORTENSON

Visually impaired, Deborah Snow can barely see the canvas, but she finds 
painting fulfilling

By nature but also by necessity, Deborah Snow is drawn close to her work. 
She leans in, dabbing rapidly at the canvas. Thick oil paint sometimes 
splatters her dogs, her hair and, of course, her magnifying glasses.

She paints landscapes she remembers or that others describe. The Columbia 
River Gorge, the Oregon coast, the Cascades, the Jamaican home of her 
partner, Dennis Black.

She paints as much by sound and feel as by sight. She can tell by the tap of 
the brush, the weight of it, how much paint she is putting on. Leaning 
close, with bright lights trained on the easel and with her glasses in 
place, she can discern and create the contrasts that distinguish 
impressionistic art.

Because of macular degeneration and the onset of glaucoma, her view of the 
world is like looking through a crumpled plastic bag. She has trouble 
appreciating her own work, visually.

"When I stand back a few feet, I can't even see it," Snow says.

In every other sense her art completes her, flooding a void she'd forgotten 
was there.

The result is striking: Landscapes that range from explosions of heaped 
colors to scenes captured with delicate nuance.

About 10 of Snow's paintings are on display at the Walnut Park branch of 
Wells Fargo Bank on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Portland.

"The reaction to these paintings has been incredible," says Bob Kavanaugh, 
the branch manager. Customers who read Snow's biography -- which is part of 
the display and explains that she is visually impaired -- are particularly 
impressed.

"A lot of our customers have struggles, and, quite frankly, it's inspiring," 
Kavanaugh says.

Snow knows about struggles. She had poor vision as a child, and by the time 
she was 23 she could no longer drive.

"I was a little housewife with two very young sons and losing my vision -- I 
was in a panic," she says.

That realization spurred her on. Guided by caring doctors, she connected 
with the Oregon Commission for the Blind, took mobility training and learned 
to travel on her own. Mobility led to classes at Mt. Hood Community College 
and Portland State University.

She earned a bachelor's degree and a master's, and she discovered a calling.

"I knew I was going to be a classroom teacher," she says. "I had a vision --  
to coin a phrase -- in my heart."

Snow won a one-year appointment at Buckman Elementary, replacing a teacher 
on leave. By the time the teacher decided not to return, the job was Snow's. 
She spent 20 years teaching first- and second-graders in Room 104 at the 
Southeast Portland school. She couldn't do playground duty or even keep her 
own attendance book because she couldn't see well enough but otherwise was 
able to do the job.

When Buckman became an arts magnet school, Snow and the rest of the staff 
underwent arts training that awoke Snow's childhood artistic bent.

"I realized I still had a talent," she says.

The advent of computers in the classroom forced her out of teaching. 
Although she could use large print screens for herself, she could not help 
multiple students using computers in class.

Depressed after leaving teaching, she found herself in downtown Portland on 
her 55th birthday, looking for a piece of art to buy. She found a Monet-like 
painting that would have been perfect for her home but gulped at the 
impossible price tag of $3,500.

While she was staring intently at the work, it struck her: "I could paint 
this."

For a fraction of the price, she loaded up on paints, brushes and an easel. 
She set to work at a frantic pace, working for a month before she got it 
right. "I just kept painting," Snow says.

"I discovered that oil -- as a big, thick, gooey medium -- is perfect for 
me," she says.

That first painting, "Dotty's Pond," named for her mother, is among the 
works on display at the bank.

Snow is associated with an organization of blind and visually impaired 
artists called Through the Mind's Eye. She admires the work of Claude Monet, 
the French impressionist. He developed cataracts and was nearly blind by the 
time he died in 1926.

Snow says she does not "look" visually impaired and that people occasionally 
think she is "ditzy" because she does "visually incorrect things." She had a 
guide dog at one point to help her travel at night and now carries a folding 
white cane in case she is out after dark. Otherwise, she is able to make her 
way during daylight. Her partner, Black, who works as a catering supervisor 
at the Rose Garden, serves as manager, navigator and soulmate.

They are such partners that Snow signs her paintings "Snow Black."

She says her vision is 20-400 in her left eye. With her right eye she can 
count fingers at about three feet, but any detail beyond that is lost.

But at her easel, with bright light and magnifying lenses, her focus becomes 
clear.

"You can paint from your mind," Snow says.

Eric Mortenson; 503-294-5972; ericmortenson at news.oregonian.com



http://www.oregonlive.com/metroeast/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_east_news/110423899822150.xml




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