[TAGS] Tactile paintings

[Aishwarya Pillai]

Hello Noel,

Thank you for your word of caution about the lacquer. I will look into
it and see how well  and safely i will be able to work with it.  As
for your question about my painting techniques, i make use of garbage
bags to cover the portions using adhesive tape so that only the
portion i intend to paint is exposed to me. Let me explain this with
"Caribbean Feast", one of the paintings i shared here.  The background
is divided into 3 horizontal portions.  The upper one is the sunset
sky, the middle one is the sea and the bottom one is the sand.  So
when i painted blue for the sea, i covered the portions of sunset sky
and sand with garbage bags. I then use horizontal strokes and coated
the area at least 2 - 3 times . i repeated the same to cover the other
two portions as well.  I am currently working on adding fine textures
to my paints so that one will be able to differentiate the colors in
the background. As for coloring foreground tactile pieces, i use
brush, fingers or sometimes even dip them into colors if necessary. It
was challenging in the beginning, but with practice it got easier and
fun to work with.  I do ask someone's feedback if i filled the colors
properly or not.
I'd love to know if members here have any other techniques.

With regards,
Aishwarya.



On 2/8/19, Noel Runyan <noel at personaldatasystems.com> wrote:
> Aishwarya,
> Sorry, yes, I was referring to Ann Cunningham, who is well known for
> her wonderful support of tactile art and artists.
> If you are thinking about using acrylic or krylon plastic materials
> for stiffening fragile portions of your art, please be aware that as
> too many other artists who have used these materials carelessly have
> discovered, it can be very unhealthy to get the spray forms of such
> materials in your lungs.  If using spray applications instead of
> brushing them on, you should use a proper respirator mask and good
> ventilation.
> I didn't realize that you were also painting your pieces.  That
> sounds great and challenging.  Can you share with us some of your
> techniques for applying paint?
> Thanks.
> Cordially,
> Noel
>
> At 02:50 AM 2/8/2019, Aishwarya Pillai wrote:
>
>>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";UTF8ISO-CONVERTED;\n
>> >>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Happy blossoms 1.jpg"
>> >>X-Attachment-Id: file1
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="An evening in
>> Paris.jpg";UTF8ISO-CONVERTED;\n
>> >>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="An evening in Paris.jpg"
>> >>X-Attachment-Id: file2
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="Caribbean
>> >> Feast.jpg";UTF8ISO-CONVERTED;\n
>> >>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Caribbean Feast.jpg"
>> >>X-Attachment-Id: file3
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="Great
>> expectations.jpg";UTF8ISO-CONVERTED;\n
>> >>Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Great expectations.jpg"
>> >>X-Attachment-Id: file4
>> >>
>> >>
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