[Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Duck tape art, ArtBreak, exhibitions, Blind With Camera project

[Lisa Yayla]

excerpt
ARTBREAK kicks off with something new
Each hands-on activity center features a professional artist providing 
demonstrations of their work. Among this year's artists are Jane Heggen, 
who's using papier-mache sculptures to demonstrate the life cycle of a 
butterfly; Jerry Davenport, who's designing a sculpture of "Grandpa's 
Head" based on Disney's "Meet The Robinsons"; and blind artist John 
Bramblitt, who demonstrates "Paint by Touch" using mixed textures of 
paint to distinguish colors
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070424/NEWS01/704240332/1002/NEWS

excerpt
Artist focuses on Holocaust survivors
"I wanted future generations to know what the survivors looked like," 
Sutz says, noting that "even blind people can touch them" with these 
masks. Understanding that these survivors were by this time senior 
citizens gave Sutz "a deeper incentive and more urgency to do this."
http://www.scrippsnews.net/node/21863


excerpt
Artbreak
The ArtBreak Festival and the Very Special Arts Festival have merged to 
celebrate the artistic abilities of people who are mentally or 
physically disabled. This year’s festival partners with the Louisiana 
Association for the Blind to demonstrate how artists see by touch or 
feel. Throughout the festival, students and families will look at art 
through the eyes of those who do not see.

Professional Artist John Bramblitt is a guest professional artist from 
Dallas, Texas, who teaches how to mix texture into paints in order to 
distinguish colors; then he shows how an artist discovers the borders of 
the canvas and spatial relationships among the images.

Sculptor Stephen Soffer will introduce students and families to seeing 
by touching. Students will wear blindfolds while they explore a series 
of large and small sculptural artworks created by Stephen.

Alicia Smith will lead students and families through a blindfolded 
exercise that begins with an “unseen” exploration of found objects. 
Artists will be able to select from a collection of small objects that 
they will put together into a sculpture. Alicia will help the young 
artists to assemble their sculpture, then, using touch only, they will 
add the sculpture to others that have been previously created and placed 
in the large shadow box.
http://shreveport.blogspot.com/2007/04/artbreak-displays-world-of-student-art.html


excerpt
Second Sight, a popular BBC detective series about a detective 
feverishly attempting to solve a murder after learning that he is going 
blind
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/british%20tv%20series%20may%20become%20us%20movie_1029571


article
The art of living
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=235664
Artists overcome disability but often fail to shed the tag

Mention Mexican painter Frieda Kahlo and what come to mind are her 
intense art and beauty. Few recall that she spent many years in 
bed-crippled by the multiple fractures in her back. Similarly, not many 
know that famous Bengali painter Binod Bihari Mukherjee—known for his 
legendary murals in Shantiniketan—created his entire body of work after 
he lost his sight in an eye operation as a child.

They were fortunate. They were seen as artists and not branded as 
‘disabled artists’. Nor did their works have to carry a similar prefix. 
But the participants of Blind With Camera project are not that 
fortunate. They have failed to shake off the ‘blind photographer’ tag. 
Same goes for Girish Mistry, who is hailed as “wheelchair-bound lens guru”.

“One way to look at these artists would be as people who have conquered 
their disabilities. However, NGOs and the art community—both of which 
are nascent in India—have not accepted their work as a sub-genre,” says 
Tina Chatterjee, director of Special Assignment for Concern India. 
“Perhaps,” she reasons, “it’s because disability is a double-edged 
sword. We are always conscious of avoiding the trap of being 
condescending.”

Photographer Partho Bhowmick agrees. “The work of the visually impaired 
is distinct from the way others approach photography and should be 
treated as a sub-genre. The on-going exhibition at Zenzi displaying 
their works has some surprising frames,” says Bhowmick, who headed the 
Blind With Camera project. He was inspired by Paris-based 
visually-challenged photographer Evgan Bavcar to take up the project.

The success story of Mistry, dean of Shari Academy of Photography and 
Digital Painting, is another instance of passion for art overcoming 
disability. Mistry was paralysed from the waist down in 1990. “I used to 
spend 15 to 18 hours a day working as a photographer. When I lost my 
mobility, my clients ignored me,” he recalls. But for him, the only way 
to live life was by continuing his work. That resulted in the 
photography institute and later several exhibitions of his works. Today, 
Mistry doesn’t see his disability as a hindrance and hates to be labelled.

Aspiring artist Sujit Chaurasia, born blind, composed photographs with 
the help of sound and the result was remarkable. Most of his fellow 
participants of Blind With Camera project followed the same method. 
Another participant Praveen Bhonsale, who lost his sight when in Class 
VI, says, “The camera is more than a toy for me. It helps me connect 
with the visual world.” He wants to pursue photography as an art form.

To promote works of artists like Bhonsale and Chaurasia, Chatterjee 
feels, “A special market needs to be created for those with 
disabilities. That’s possible only if we tap talents from across the 
country, not just metros.”


excerpt
Visual artists triumph over lack of sight

It's impressive enough when anyone refines his or her talent enough to 
exhibit, but especially impressive when the visual artist is blind.

Last Wednesday, two visually impaired artists showed their work at the 
Portsmouth Public Library in a special exhibit sponsored by the New 
Hampshire Association for the Blind. It's a shame the display was up for 
only a few hours on a single day. Inspiration isn't always easy to come 
by and these two artists had plenty to share.

Vincente Paratore is blind, save for about 2 percent sight in his left 
eye. Painting is his passion, so he found ways to keep going without 
sight. He uses only four colors and has a specially designed light box 
to mix them. Each tube of acrylic paint has a wooden clothespin clipped 
on the bottom. He puts the letter of the color on each tube, raised, so 
that he can feel the letter to identify the color. Then, he cuts inside 
the shapes of the clay that he has painted around.

"I can see everything in my head," Paratore told the Herald "I have 
spent 22 years without vision and colors. I can see even better now, in 
my head and mind."

Anna Krebs, Paratore's co-exhibitor, lost most of her eyesight 6½ years 
ago. She used to work as an artisan selling work to regional vendors and 
continues to make quilts, both hand sewn and machine sewn, as well as 
dolls, fake candies and Christmas ornaments. All of the dolls Krebs 
makes have a little white cane, symbolic of the blind person.

"Thanks to the New Hampshire Association of the Blind," Krebs said, " I 
found new ways of doing things. I wasn't sure I could keep sewing, but I 
was wrong. I still do and it's all done with love."
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140329/-1/NEWS


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Special art for the blind
Hoboken students share audio/tactile creativity with visually-impaired 
students
http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18361071&BRD=1291&PAG=461&dept_id=523585&rfi=6

To bring art to a segment of the community that might not commonly 
experience it, a group of upperclassman from the Hoboken Charter School 
created an audio exhibit for visually-impaired students at St. Joseph's 
School for the Blind in Jersey City in which touch, sound, and smell 
were emphasized.

The idea for the project originated with Charter's art teacher Loren 
Abbate, who has worked with eight seniors and one junior since November 
of 2006 to create the exhibit.

The exhibit includes thick thread hanging overhead and a bubble-wrapped 
floor that students walk across before feeling their way along a 
multi-dimensional wall consisting of an array of fabrics, wires, 
plastics, and even scented oils.

In addition to giving students at St. Joseph's a chance to experience 
art in a creative fashion, the charter school students also learned 
about the different degrees of blindness, the physiological and 
psychological sources of it, and the challenges visually impaired 
individuals face in society.

"As a service-learning school, our goal was to reach out to others in 
our community and give the experience of art to a population that's 
challenged," said Abbate. "At the same time, I think my students became 
more appreciative of the abilities they possess in the process."
She said the materials used in the exhibit were collected through 
student-led field trips around Hoboken.

excerpt video interview at link
http://www.kmeg14.com/news/local/7572272.html?skipthumb=Y
"People You Should Know" - Orange City Duct Tape Artist
Each week we introduce you to someone we think you should know, and this 
week you'll meet someone who has a creative mind and spirit, here's KMEG 
14’s Mark Hall with this weeks “Person You Should Know.”

This week we sat down with a young man who some say has a unique hobby, 
others say a unique talent, either way he's unique.

David Wassenaar is an artist at work. But he’s not holding a paint 
brush, he uses duct tape. David has been ripping and tearing since he 
was 12, his first project was a 15 pound ball.