[Home-on-the-range] Lawrence Journal-World: Gift Gets Legally Blind Artist to Take Up Brushes Again

Susan Tabor souljourner at sbcglobal.net
Tue Dec 31 03:37:15 UTC 2013


Hi, Dianne:

 

I was intrigued by him as well, and am intrigued by your comments.  We may
be inviting him to one of our chapter meetings to give a presentation.

Susan

 

From: Home-on-the-range [mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Dianne Hemphill
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 9:39 AM
To: NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List
Cc: Jayhawk Chapter list, Lawrence, Kansas
Subject: Re: [Home-on-the-range] Lawrence Journal-World: Gift Gets Legally
Blind Artist to Take Up Brushes Again

 

...thanks for  sharing this Susan - I've just recently begun working
(playing) with some art forms and have found, to my surprise, how much I
enjoy the whole process of thinking about, designing and allowing the
creative process to unfold...this guy sounds like someone the NFBK might
want to contact - it sounds like his philosophy about losing his sight is
already one that parallels with ours. Dianne

On Dec 27, 2013, at 8:16 PM, Susan Tabor wrote:





 

 

LJWorld.com | Gift gets legally blind artist to take up brushes again

 

LJWorld.com

 

Gift gets legally blind artist to take up brushes again

 

December 26, 2013

 

John Parkinson is a bit embarrassed with one detail of a painting in the
living room of his Hancuff Place apartment.

 

"Do you notice anything about that painting? It's not like those," he said,
waving his hand to two of his paintings hanging on opposite walls of his
apartment.

"There's no mountain. I forgot to paint it in. I'm going to call the
painting 'Mystery Mountain.' If people ask where is the mountain, I'll tell
them that's

the mystery."

 

The paintings on the wall were done long ago, when the 57-year-old Parkinson
painted regularly and before he was considered legally blind. Eight years

ago, a stroke following quadruple bypass surgery left him with limited
sight.

 

"If you were to take a pair of glasses, coat the lens with Vaseline and look
through them, that's basically what I can see," he said. "I've got a TV. I

can't see much, but I can see the colors."

 

He's painting again because of the gift of an easel in October from two
fellow Hancuff Place residents, Bob Goulet and Mike Moran. The two men had
seen

the paintings in Parkinson's apartment and wanted to motivate him to take up
the brush again.

 

"We wanted him to quit watching TV all day," Moran said. "He used to be a
painter. We wanted to get him started again."

 

Parkinson said he had been involved with art since he was a child, growing
up in San Diego, Calif. His drawings of World War II aircraft are in the
collection

of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, and he started painting oils in 1977,
he said.

 

He shared an interest in hobbies with this father, applying his artistic
talent to model trains and the radio-controlled airplanes they built,
Parkinson

said.

 

About 20 years ago, he built a dollhouse for his daughter, Jenifer. After
adding furniture and wallpaper, he noticed one thing was missing.

 

"There wasn't any paintings on the wall," he said. "So I decided to paint
some. It turns out there is the International Guild of Miniature Artisans. I

joined and started doing miniature paintings. It absolutely took off."

 

He sold 1-inch by 2-inch miniature paintings on eBay, getting a thrill about
how the bidding price would skyrocket in the last 30 minutes, Parkinson
said.

His most noteworthy placement was a 2-inch by 4-inch painting of the Titanic
in a museum in England.

 

He'd thought about starting to paint again in recent years, Parkinson said.
When Moran and Goulet gave him the easel, he decided there were no more
excuses.

He enlisted his daughter Jenifer Waters of Baldwin City, the same daughter
for whom he had built the dollhouse years ago, to help him shop for art
supplies

 

"I went down the aisle, saying 'I need cadmium yellow and yellow ochre.'
She'd hand me brushes, and I'd tell her 'I need one with stiffer bristles
than

that,'" he said.

 

That same retained knowledge allowed him to paint despite his limited
vision.

 

"I can't see, but I can see up here," Parkinson said, tapping his head. "I
can do it because I've been doing it for 30 years. I know what I'm doing."

 

Waters said Goulet and Moran's gift has meant more than painting to her
father.

 

"He's received a really good reaction," she said. "It's definitely lifted
his spirits. I think it's given him more confidence in himself, too."

 

Parkinson said returning to painting reinforced a lesson he learned when,
after his stroke, he was placed in a room at a rehabilitation facility with
a

man in his mid-20s with severe cerebral palsy.

 

"I realized he had a disability," he said. "What I have is an inconvenience.
I was pretty down after the stroke, but I think that was God's way of
telling

me to quit feeling sorry for myself and get on with it."

 

Parkinson is ready to move ahead with this painting.

 

"My next painting's going to be of a barn," he said. "It's based on one of
my miniatures. It's a big barn. Big enough for farm equipment and
everything."

 

Originally published at:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/dec/26/gift-gets-legally-blind-artist-take
-brushes-again/

 

 

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