[TAGS] Tactile paintings

Fri Feb 8 10:50:24 UTC 2019

Hello Noel,

Thank you for writing to me.  It is interesting to know your feedback
on my art work. I hope someday it will be able to reach out to many
persons with vision loss so that they can experience it as well. As
for calling it tactile paintings, besides using physical elements , I
also paint them.  My idea behind it is that both sighted and visually
impaired persons should be able to enjoy and come together to
experience it.  I am from India and in this country, there is a wide
gap between both communities.  I hope through these paintings, i will
be able to bring them together to raise awareness about the abilities
of persons with vision loss.
I am still learning and trying to make my artwork more durable and
suitable for touch experience. You mentioned about Ann, is she by any
chance Ann Cunningham? If yes, I am aware of her work and I have
spoken to her once.  She is also helping me out to connect with other
blind artists in Colorado.  Her work deeply fasinates me and would
love to experience it myself one day.

With regards,
Aishwarya.

On 2/8/19, Noel Runyan <noel at personaldatasystems.com> wrote:
> Aishwarya ,
> Welcome to the list.
> Thanks for sharing the photos of your artworks and their descriptions with
> us.
> My sighted wife has studied them and said that you should definitely
> be encouraged to produce more art like them.  Hopefully the members
> of this list will someday have a chance to experience your work by touch.
> By the way, I wonder if it might be more proper to call such pieces
> "tactile collage art", rather than "tactile paintings".
> Whatever it is called, I'm sure many others would like to experience it.
> I was fascinated by the interesting materials you were able to shape
> into your tactile art.
> I suppose that there might be some tactile art that is too fragile to
> be appreciated by tactile examination, although it might be visually
> appreciated.  Certainly art designed for appreciation by touch needs
> to be constructed of rugged materials, such as Ann's wonderful slate
> etchings.
> I am curious to know if anyone on this list knows of any meaningful
> works of art that are only appreciated by touch but might be visually
> meaningless?
> Cordially,
> Noel
> -
> Noel H. Runyan
> Email: Noel at PersonalDataSystems.com
> Smail: 638 Sobrato Lane, Campbell, CA, 95008, USA
> Phone: 1-408-866-7564
> -
> At 12:05 AM 2/7/2019, Aishwarya Pillai via TAGS wrote:
>
>>Hi All,
>>
>>I am Aishwarya and i'm new to this list. I work as a Rehabilitation
>>Counselor and I'm also into tactile paintings for blind persons.  I
>>was looking to connect with blind artists from around the world.  In
>>this regard, I had written to few centres, One of them is NFB. That's
>>when i got to correspond with Lou Ann who was kind to let me know
>>about TAGS list.
>>If i may introduce more about myself, I was struck blind 10 years ago.
>>One of my interests at that time was pencil sketching.  Unfortunately
>>I gave it up as I couldn't pursue it any further.  Last year, I
>>happened to visit a painting gallery in my city.  To my disappointment
>>I could not enjoy any of the paintings there as all of them were 2
>>dimensional.  That's when i thought of doing tactile paintings.
>>I personally believe that art is a form of expression and it should be
>>experienced by everyone including blind persons.  So I started working
>>on tactile paintings from there on.  My first task was to define
>>colors in a way that it would represent an emotion or meaning. For
>>example, when I say red, it may represent love, passion on the
>>positive side and anger on the negative side. My second task was to
>>choose material for the tactile elements of the painting. Combining
>>both, I was able to paint 4 tactile paintings.  I am planning to do
>>many more as days go by.  I am also in the process of organizing a
>>workshop and an exhibition at my work place for blind persons so that
>>they not only learn how to do it themselves but also touch and
>>experience it. My aim through these programs is to bring them and the
>>sighted community together to bridge the gap between the two so that
>>they can enjoy art under one roof.
>>I have attached four images of my paintings to this email.  Below is a
>>description of each one of them for blind persons on this list.
>>Happy Blossoms:
>>It has blue background and four yellow flowers. The reason I selected
>>blue is because it represents gloom and I chose yellow for the flowers
>>because it represents happiness.  I used dry leaves for the petals.
>>The center of the flower is a small circle of golden colored beads.
>>The message it gives away is that despite the sadness in one's life,
>>there would always come a moment of happiness that would surely
>>blossom!
>>An evening in Paris
>>The background elements of this painting are a blue wall and a table.
>>As for the tactile foreground, towards the left-hand side, there is a
>>burning candle on a stand and a beaded chain hanging from it. The
>>bottom end of the chain is broken. So few beads are scattered around
>>two roses that are placed on the table.  Towards the top right-hand
>>side, a painting frame of the Eiffel tower appears to be hanging on
>>the wall. I used ice-cream sticks, beads and silver foil for the
>>candle stand, mixture of glue, water and tissue paper for the candle,
>>colored paper for the roses and the painting frame of the Eifel tower.
>>Caribbean feast:
>>This is a painting of a beach with a sunset sky, the sea and the sand
>>with two coconut trees.  I used reddish orange color for the sky and
>>blue for the beach. The sand is real and was glued to the canvas.  As
>>for the coconut trees, I used silver foil to make its trunks, one
>>longer than the other.  I later layered them with sheets of blank
>>paper and colored them brown.  As for the leaves I used thick paper,
>>cut it in the right shape and colored them green.  I also glued
>>coconuts that were made of silver foil and tissue paper and glued them
>>to the trees.  Finally, I cut paper like a shape of a flying bird,
>>colored it black and glued it on the sky.
>>  Great Expectations:
>>It has fenced dry yellow-brown grass, dark grey sky, a lightning bolt,
>>a hut and a windmill. The grass is made of paper that was colored and
>>cut into thin conical shapes, the fencing is made of ice-cream sticks
>>and silver foil, the hut is made of paper and silver foil, the
>>windmill is made of a bead, paper coffee cup and straws and the
>>lightning bolt is made of silver foil.  The message that this painting
>>gives away is that although one has gone through bad times, good times
>>are yet to come.  The dry grass represents bad times whereas the
>>lightning bolt reminds one that showers are soon to come, so one can
>>expect great things to happen!
>>
>>I am currently looking to connect to other blind artists so that we
>>can exchange ideas and share experiences.  It would be nice to know
>>what you think of these paintings. I'm sorry if my email was too long,
>>going to end it for now.  Looking forward to connecting to you all.
>>
>>Thanks and regards,
>>Aishwarya
>>
>>
>>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="Happy blossoms 1.jpg"
>>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Happy blossoms 1.jpg"
>>X-Attachment-Id: file1
>>
>>
>>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="An evening in Paris.jpg"
>>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="An evening in Paris.jpg"
>>X-Attachment-Id: file2
>>
>>
>>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="Caribbean Feast.jpg"
>>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Caribbean Feast.jpg"
>>X-Attachment-Id: file3
>>
>>
>>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="Great expectations.jpg"
>>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Great expectations.jpg"
>>X-Attachment-Id: file4
>>
>>
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