[Art_beyond_sight_advocacy] Loss of Vision Leads Graphic Designer to New Career

[Kathleen Kridler]

One Eleven Art Gallery
111 Pennsylvania Avenue in Norfolk
Right off Granby St. across from Riverview Theater. (757) 625-1110
UpcomingExhibition: Peripheral Visions: Contemporary Portraits by  
Kathleen Kridler Nov. 13 - 30

Upcoming Exhibition: "Peripheral Visions" presented by artist Kathleen  
Kridler.
Show Opening:Friday Nov. 13, 2009 from 7 to 10:00 PM. Free & Open to  
Public. Join us as studio member artist Kathleen Kridlery presents a  
new portfolio of mixed media contemporary portraits and other works!  
Exhibition runs through November 30.

Thank you.

Kathleen Kridler

757 581 2838



Additional Information:


Loss of Vision Leads Graphic Designer to New Career

What’s not evident from viewing Kathleen Kridler's uniquely layered  
portraits is that in 2007, Kridler was declared legally blind as the  
result of myopic degeneration. The art director for Norfolk  
Redevelopment & Housing Authority, she had to retire from 25-year  
career in graphic design and illustration because she could no longer  
see well enough to work.

For someone who had studied at New York’s School of Visual Arts, being  
legally blind was a huge hurdle and potential nightmare. Not only was  
Kridler determined to overcome it, she wanted to find a way to thrive  
again. She turned to the Virginia Department of the Blind and Visually  
Impaired. They enabled her to enroll in ODU to finish her degree. In  
art.

So Kridler began to alter her materials, as a way of reflecting her  
fractured and spotty sight. “I started tearing the paper, disrupting  
the surface, adding elements. My work became much larger out of  
necessity, and much more textural. I tried new materials, which led to  
new ways of rendering my subjects. It’s very difficult for me to mix  
color wet without sticking my nose in it, so I started working with  
dry mediums and working the wetness in later. It’s been a big  
experiment in what I can do and what I can’t, and how to work around  
it. I could not have done this without the support of the art  
department at ODU and DBVI. I had some angels there, nudging me  
forward.”

“I don’t want to be known only as ‘that blind artist’, though it has  
redefined how I work” she adds. “I hope my work stands on its own, not  
in terms of being okay for a blind person. I want people to understand  
that good things often come in disguised packages, and you have to  
look for what god wants you to do with them. It’s all a gift, and a  
choice we make. How about vision disaster leads to gratifying new  
discoveries... and peace?”







-- 

Suzanne
Kathleen Kridler
kkridler at mac.com