[TAGS] Artworks at Tactile painting exhibition

[Aishwarya Pillai]

Hi Don,

Thank you for your interest in the workshop and exhibition. There is a
lot that happened behind the scenes.  My work place is a
rehabilitation centre for persons with vision loss.  So it became easy
to mobilize participants for it.  I had also circulated the
information on various social forums.  The first workshop had 35
participants, both late and congenitally blind.  The sessions in this
included;
1. Understanding the  meaning of various colors:
In this, I had briefed the participants about positive and negative
meanings associated with each color, for example red can be associated
with anger and passion, pink with unconditional love and silliness,
etc.  I had also shared with them a color reference sheet consisting a
list of various elements in nature and their colors.  this sheet was
very useful to those who were congenitally blind as it helped them
understand and choose colors for their painting.
2. Usage of different types of tactile elements
This included lessons on what tactile materials they can use.  For
example, tissue paper, beads, ice-cream sticks, aluminum foil, etc
3. Painting techniques:
basic brush strokes and finger painting
4. execution on canvas
This included how they would paint the background of the painting and
gluing the tactile objects onto it.

I had also showed them four tactile paintings that I had made earlier
so that they have an idea how the output would look.  In the end, we
had an interactive session wherein I encouraged them to come up with
different themes and ideas.  The second workshop was to be heled in a
week.  During this time, I had personally talked to each participant
and and understood what their ideas were.  We discussed and simplified
it so that it would be easy for them to create as it was there first
time.  16 participants were filtered based on their interest and
willingness.
On the scheduled date, we had provided the materials and assigned a
volunteer to assist them.  It took one whole day to finish their
paintings.  I was so elated to see the results.
As for the exhibition, I had again circulated the information among
various social forums.  I had also designed the booklets to give away
to the visitors.  It consisted of images of the paintings along with
their description. The Communications department at my work place
helped me to invite local media.  Finally the day had arrived when the
paintings were displayed and highly appreciated.  So that's it I
think.  Sorry if my mail was too long.

Aishwarya.