[Art_beyond_sight_educators] Touch Art blog, Legally blind photographer Angela Geis

[fnugg at online.no]

Touch Art
  With funding from the Sprout Fund,  the Touch Art project is able to 
open new art making possibilities for people who are blind or visually 
impaired in Allegheny County. This traditionally under-served audience 
will have access to professional art making resources and engaging 
workshops with specially trained teaching artists.
Touch Art's six workshops will focus on tactile and three-dimensional 
art forms such as making memory vessels from fiber, hollow beads made 
from precious metal clay, hand building clay sound sculptures, and 
handmade paper. Touch Art creates an inclusive art-making space to 
develop the untapped creativity and art skills of an audience that has 
historically lacked access to art making.
The project also offers educational opportunities to local 
artist-teachers who will receive studio-specific accessibility training. 
This process will be documented on film and shared with a larger 
audience of educators in a seminar for artists and educators. Through 
this educational seminar and public display of work, Touch Art hopes to 
expand the perceptions of Pittsburgh art-viewers throughout the city.
Working with artists who have visual impairments, art educators who want 
to make their classes more accessible and art audiences at large, Touch 
Art hopes to expand the perceptions of Pittsburgh art-viewers throughout 
the city, not only about aesthetics, but also about the capabilities of 
people who are blind or visually impaired.
http://touchartblog.wordpress.com/about/

Alt-week 7.27.13: The blind pixel-painter, redirecting the sun and 
Saturn's view of Earth
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/27/alt-week-7-27-13-the-blind-pixel-painter/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget
20/20 Blindsight: Powerful New Book Illuminates the Accomplishments & 
Challenges of Blind Artists
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/2020-blindsight-powerful-new-book-illuminates-the-accomplishments-challenges-of-blind-artists-290394.htm

Bits 'n' Pieces: Blind painter's watercolor vision rewarded
Vancouver watercolor artist Susan Gustafson paints the world as she sees 
it, as her sight shrinks and dims.
Gustafson was diagnosed more than 30 years ago with retinitis 
pigmentosa, a progressive, degenerative genetic eye condition that 
squeezes her visual field into a tiny frame.
"So whatever I see is always a composition," she said. "My mother and 
brother are also blind, save for a few inches of light."
She will be honored with the Shared Visions Artists Award by the 
Marshall B. Ketchum University in California on Sept. 19 as part of its 
annual gala. Gustafson submitted her watercolor "Tulip Time" to the 
university's annual art show for visually impaired artists, earning Best 
of Show.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/aug/30/blind-painters-watercolor-vision-awarded/



Blind RAF veteran presents Andy Murray painting to tennis star's 
grandparents


Blind Tasmanian artist James Newton has recreated some of the world's 
famous artworks and pop culture icons using sock monkeys.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-15/artworks-and-pop-culture-icons-recreated-with-sock-monkeys/4957942

Our Colorado News : Artist Ann Jennings describes her new tactile art 
installation to celebrants at CCB's 25 birthday party as they feel their 
way around it 
<http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/news/colorado-center-for-the-blind-celebrates-turning/article_220ecd00-1fd5-11e3-b9d1-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=story>
http://celebrated-her-25th-birthday.rsspump.com/?key=20130909002537.dkny-celebrating-25th-birthday


video and article
Legally blind photographer Angela Geis shares giftPhotography is a 
visual art that often requires strong eye focus, but for photographers 
who are legally blind, like Angela Geis, it's a unique gift.

She chooses black and white photography of cemeteries and bleak 
landscapes not for depth, history and emotions, but because they're more 
artistic.

"It was amazing how people took time back in the day to spend time on 
the architectural," said Geis."It is just easier for me to take 
still-life things and it's always been an interest of mine."

Angela Geis has been taking pictures since she was a child.

"Then it wasn't until I took an Art of Psychology at NEU and part of the 
course work was to contact a professional artist in a field of our 
interest and so, sense photography kind of interests me."
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/disability_issues&id=9257328

Angela Geis

http://visionsinthedark.net/Visons_In_the_Dark/Welcome.html