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<font size=3>Hi All,<br>
Apologies for the length of this post.<br>
In conjunction with last week's California Council of the Blind
convention in Rancho Cordova, CA, near Sacramento, Cheryl Gleason pulled
together a wonderful show of tactile art at the Mills Art and Culture
Center. It featured tactile artworks from several visually impaired
artists, as well as pieces that were great to explore with the
fingers.<br>
Although I hesitate to consider myself an artist, I had some of my own
pieces in the show. In addition to my smaller pieces of Art Techo,
such as necklaces and small figurines made from polished gemstones, I
also had some wood pieces. One was a seven inch wooden heart,
trimmed with heavy gauge twisted copper wire. I found that I could
use twisted trios of copper wire to form nice feeling inner hearts and
other raised symbols with good tactile relief. To hold the twisted
wire pieces in place, I used very thin mono filament fishing line through
hidden holes drilled through the wood.<br><br>
One of my more popular pieces was my Art Techo Starfish, which had a
five-pointed starfish I made out of a computer hard disk platter and on
which I mounted a finely polished Brazilian agate gemstone. This
starfish rests in a nice bed of white coral that is mounted on a base of
rich red-brown padauk tree wood. To add some smooth tactile
contrast, I trimmed the outer edge of the wood base with the twisted trio
of heavy copper wire. I'm told that "twisted trio" sounds
like some kind of musical group.<br>
However, the pieces I was showing were definitely overshadowed and out
shown by the wonderful works of the real artists, such as George Wurtzel,
whose great wood art most of you already know of.<br>
Deb Kent Stein had several pieces of her works from live forms.
<br>
There was also a 10 foot long set of four foot high free-standing panels
with a huge dragon with tactile 3D features, including large
scales.<br><br>
The MACC show included ceramic and bronze figurines, large carved wood
panel reproductions of St. George and other famous brass etchings from
all over Europe. The artist who made those made them from charcoal
rubbings he made several years ago, before it was no longer
permitted. Incidentally the artist who made those wood etchings was
a nice but gruff old Viet Nam war veteran who got all choked up
with joy, when he saw blind folks exploring and appreciating his works by
touch. He was delighted that, of all the museums in which he has
shown his art around the world, this was the first museum that allowed
and encouraged folks to appreciate his art by touch.<br><br>
Some of the artworks were made more accessible by providing both braille
and large print titles and descriptions. Since several of you have
mentioned the difficulties you encountered in hearing prerecorded audio
descriptions through a fixed speaker, especially in a noisy gallery, I
tried out adding audio description players for all the pieces I was
showing. These consisted of small audio players you could hold in
your hand, close to your ear, to hear the description when you pushed a
button on its side. Each audio player had a five foot long bead
tether to keep it with its associated artwork. Of course, since I'm
really into repurposing technology, I made each of these audio recording
players out of left over talking pill bottle units, and the bead chains
were surplus tethers from retired voting systems.<br>
Does anybody else need a couple of hundred five foot long bead
chains?<br><br>
I spoke with Ann, and we will try to get Cheryl Gleason, of the MACC art
museum, to join this list, to give you a better description and help
network in more of the artists from the show.<br>
Cheryl is hoping to repeat the show next year, so hopefully more of you
might be able to take advantage of that opportunity to show and sell your
own works.<br><br>
Sorry if this post was too long for you.<br>
Cordially,<br>
Noel<br>
-<br>
Noel H. Runyan<br>
Phone: (408) 866-7564<br>
Email: Noel@PersonalDataSystems.com<br>
-<br>
At 08:52 AM 3/27/2018, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hello Fellow TAGS,<br>
Darlene Darlene Laibl-Crowe shared this survey with me and I hope you
will consider responding to it. <br>
All best, <br>
Ann<br><br>
Please share and encourage participation! This survey is being
conducted by a young DB man who is pursuing his higher education.<br>
<br>
Let’s work together to support him!<br>
<br>
J (smile)<br>
<b>Dar~<br>
</b> <br>
<b>From:</b> DBCAN NJ
<<a href="mailto:dbcannj@gmail.com">dbcannj@gmail.com</a>> <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, March 26, 2018 10:29 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> undisclosed-recipients:<br>
<b>Subject:</b> SURVEY: How Blind and DeafBlind People Find Value in
Art<br>
<br>
<b><i>We hope you'll help Jon out with your perspective on art.
</i></b><br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>Hi, everyone, <br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>Please distribute this survey to your friends and colleagues so that
deafblind and blind people can take my survey about "How DeafBlind
and Blind People Find Value in Art?"<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>I am a junior majoring in fine art. I am doing a research project for
my New Jersey City University Philosophy of Art class. This class’s
focus is on visual aspects of appreciating art. It does not include how
DeafBlind and blind people appreciate fine art. I am a Deafblind artist
myself, and believe that DeafBlind people can and do enjoy art, and find
value in it. My project is called "How Blind and DeafBlind People
Find Value in Art." I hope you will help me with this research
project by taking a short survey. Here is link:<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>
<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=KncVgIogikXfzudbQIldcAQwO7wzPLDx1o0W4vjJh3E_3D " eudora="autourl">
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=KncVgIogikXfzudbQIldcAQwO7wzPLDx1o0W4vjJh3E_3D
</a><br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>Thank you for your help.<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>Jon Gabry<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd> <br><br>
</dl><br>
Ann Cunningham<br>
Tactile Art <br>
</i>303 887-1713<br>
<a href="mailto:ann@acunningham.com">ann@acunningham.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.acunningham.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.acunningham.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.sensationalbooks.com">
http://www.sensationalbooks.com</a> <br><br>
<dl><br>
</dl>_______________________________________________<br>
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TAGS@nfbnet.org<br>
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http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tags_nfbnet.org</a><br>
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
TAGS:<br>
<a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/noel@personaldatasystems.com" eudora="autourl">
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/noel%40personaldatasystems.com</a>
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