[Nfb-krafters-korner] Crafting a Show

[River Woman]

Good Morning, Krafter's-Korner Friends,

 

I have been fairly quiet lately because I am "up to my EYES"  in an exciting new project. I will most likely be inactive for the next few months because I have to focus my attention on the project. For those of you who are interested in art, I wanted to pass along my news to you to give you an idea of how our passions in making beautiful things can sometimes be so uplifting to others in a very different way.

 

My news to share this morning is this:

 

I have begun work on a new  museum exhibition with Suzanne Gibson; she is a blind painter and the owner of River's Edge Gallery, New Brighton, PA. 

 

Our two-person show is tentatively set to open in the Spring, 2014. Dates will be confirmed in late July by the Merrick Art Gallery and Museum, New Brighton, Pennsylvania.  

 

We have titled our show, "Vision and Re-Vision." 

 

Suzanne and I are both blind artists who have encountered profound  changes through loss of vision. I have Ischemic Optic Neuropathy, and Suzanne has Stargardt disease. My sight loss was nearly instantaneous; Suzanne's loss of vision has been gradual and progressive. We both faced the "What to do now?" question when sight loss forced us to consider how we would continue to make art without seeing what we are doing.

 

We gave our forthcoming exhibition the title, "Vision and Re-vision"  because  we have both had our "normal" lives changed and have had to refocus our ways of living and making art.  Our exhibition will  focus on how we make art without sight, or with greatly altered vision.   Suzanne will be creating paintings for the show. I am working on new pottery pieces and bead worked fiber pieces and texts.  "Vision and Re-Vision" will bring visitors into our  world through Video, Literature, Photography, Paintings, and Mixed media fiber arts.  

 

We plan to have wall texts done in Braille as well as print for visitors. We are going to have a Video Loop made of us working and talking about our art and our sight loss experiences - it will play continuously in the show on a large monitor. We are creating  a book that will be introduced the  night of our opening. The book will feature personal reflections on our sight loss, poems, photos of our art, and descriptions of how we work with adaptive technologies for the blind.  

 

Let's see, yes, we are creating posters  and will create a  display on " Vision and Re-Vision" as an introduction to our show; visitors will experience this display as they  enter the gallery.  

 

Suzanne's background training is in Design and mine is in Fine Art and English Literature. We will combine our mutual passions to create an exhibition that we believe will be intelligent, informative, educational, and beautiful. 

 

This exhibition will likely travel to other venues following it's launch in the spring of 2014. We want to share our work with as many people as we can through this exhibition.

 



Lynda McKinney Lambert, BFA, MA, MFA

Author of Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage

 

http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com