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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>LJWorld.com | Gift gets legally blind artist to take up brushes again<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>LJWorld.com<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Gift gets legally blind artist to take up brushes again<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>December 26, 2013 <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>John Parkinson is a bit embarrassed with one detail of a painting in the living room of his Hancuff Place apartment.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>the mystery.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>ago, a stroke following quadruple bypass surgery left him with limited sight.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>can’t see much, but I can see the colors.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>the paintings in Parkinson’s apartment and wanted to motivate him to take up the brush again.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“We wanted him to quit watching TV all day,” Moran said. “He used to be a painter. We wanted to get him started again.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, and he started painting oils in 1977, he said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>He shared an interest in hobbies with this father, applying his artistic talent to model trains and the radio-controlled airplanes they built, Parkinson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>said. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>About 20 years ago, he built a dollhouse for his daughter, Jenifer. After adding furniture and wallpaper, he noticed one thing was missing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>joined and started doing miniature paintings. It absolutely took off.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>His most noteworthy placement was a 2-inch by 4-inch painting of the Titanic in a museum in England.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>that,’” he said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>That same retained knowledge allowed him to paint despite his limited vision.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Waters said Goulet and Moran’s gift has meant more than painting to her father.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>man in his mid-20s with severe cerebral palsy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>me to quit feeling sorry for myself and get on with it.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Parkinson is ready to move ahead with this painting.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“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.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Originally published at: <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/dec/26/gift-gets-legally-blind-artist-take-brushes-again/">http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/dec/26/gift-gets-legally-blind-artist-take-brushes-again/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>