<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'>
<div>Hello Don't forget tactiles of cells and anatomy and such are great for blind students learning STEM classes</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both">
<div>Michelle Ouellet</div>
<div><i>"Intelligence is the ability to change." Stephen Hawking</i></div>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Valerie Alcaraz via TAGS <tags@nfbnet.org><br>
To: Tactile Art and Tactile Graphics Specialist list <tags@nfbnet.org><br>
Cc: Valerie Alcaraz <snowflake9587@gmail.com><br>
Sent: Thu, Feb 7, 2019 11:31 am<br>
Subject: Re: [TAGS] Tactile paintings<br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr">Hi Aishwarya,<br clear="none">My name is Valerie, and I am a totally blind artist. I have an associate’s degree in art from Fullerton college. My main focus was pottery, but have also done tactile drawings and a painting. I too want to experiment more as I feel 2-dimensional arts are very much an unknown for blind folks.<br clear="none">It is good to meet you via this list.<br clear="none">Best,<br clear="none">Valerie<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> On Feb 7, 2019, at 12:05 AM, Aishwarya Pillai via TAGS <<a href="mailto:tags@nfbnet.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:tags@nfbnet.org">tags@nfbnet.org</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Hi All,<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> I am Aishwarya and i'm new to this list. I work as a Rehabilitation<br clear="none">> Counselor and I'm also into tactile paintings for blind persons. I<br clear="none">> was looking to connect with blind artists from around the world. In<br clear="none">> this regard, I had written to few centres, One of them is NFB. That's<br clear="none">> when i got to correspond with Lou Ann who was kind to let me know<br clear="none">> about TAGS list.<br clear="none">> If i may introduce more about myself, I was struck blind 10 years ago.<br clear="none">> One of my interests at that time was pencil sketching. Unfortunately<br clear="none">> I gave it up as I couldn't pursue it any further. Last year, I<br clear="none">> happened to visit a painting gallery in my city. To my disappointment<br clear="none">> I could not enjoy any of the paintings there as all of them were 2<br clear="none">> dimensional. That's when i thought of doing tactile paintings.<br clear="none">> I personally believe that art is a form of expression and it should be<br clear="none">> experienced by everyone including blind persons. So I started working<br clear="none">> on tactile paintings from there on. My first task was to define<br clear="none">> colors in a way that it would represent an emotion or meaning. For<br clear="none">> example, when I say red, it may represent love, passion on the<br clear="none">> positive side and anger on the negative side. My second task was to<br clear="none">> choose material for the tactile elements of the painting. Combining<br clear="none">> both, I was able to paint 4 tactile paintings. I am planning to do<br clear="none">> many more as days go by. I am also in the process of organizing a<br clear="none">> workshop and an exhibition at my work place for blind persons so that<br clear="none">> they not only learn how to do it themselves but also touch and<br clear="none">> experience it. My aim through these programs is to bring them and the<br clear="none">> sighted community together to bridge the gap between the two so that<br clear="none">> they can enjoy art under one roof.<br clear="none">> I have attached four images of my paintings to this email. Below is a<br clear="none">> description of each one of them for blind persons on this list.<br clear="none">> Happy Blossoms:<br clear="none">> It has blue background and four yellow flowers. The reason I selected<br clear="none">> blue is because it represents gloom and I chose yellow for the flowers<br clear="none">> because it represents happiness. I used dry leaves for the petals.<br clear="none">> The center of the flower is a small circle of golden colored beads.<br clear="none">> The message it gives away is that despite the sadness in one’s life,<br clear="none">> there would always come a moment of happiness that would surely<br clear="none">> blossom!<br clear="none">> An evening in Paris<br clear="none">> The background elements of this painting are a blue wall and a table.<br clear="none">> As for the tactile foreground, towards the left-hand side, there is a<br clear="none">> burning candle on a stand and a beaded chain hanging from it. The<br clear="none">> bottom end of the chain is broken. So few beads are scattered around<br clear="none">> two roses that are placed on the table. Towards the top right-hand<br clear="none">> side, a painting frame of the Eiffel tower appears to be hanging on<br clear="none">> the wall. I used ice-cream sticks, beads and silver foil for the<br clear="none">> candle stand, mixture of glue, water and tissue paper for the candle,<br clear="none">> colored paper for the roses and the painting frame of the Eifel tower.<br clear="none">> Caribbean feast:<br clear="none">> This is a painting of a beach with a sunset sky, the sea and the sand<br clear="none">> with two coconut trees. I used reddish orange color for the sky and<br clear="none">> blue for the beach. The sand is real and was glued to the canvas. As<br clear="none">> for the coconut trees, I used silver foil to make its trunks, one<br clear="none">> longer than the other. I later layered them with sheets of blank<br clear="none">> paper and colored them brown. As for the leaves I used thick paper,<br clear="none">> cut it in the right shape and colored them green. I also glued<br clear="none">> coconuts that were made of silver foil and tissue paper and glued them<br clear="none">> to the trees. Finally, I cut paper like a shape of a flying bird,<br clear="none">> colored it black and glued it on the sky.<br clear="none">> Great Expectations:<br clear="none">> It has fenced dry yellow-brown grass, dark grey sky, a lightning bolt,<br clear="none">> a hut and a windmill. The grass is made of paper that was colored and<br clear="none">> cut into thin conical shapes, the fencing is made of ice-cream sticks<br clear="none">> and silver foil, the hut is made of paper and silver foil, the<br clear="none">> windmill is made of a bead, paper coffee cup and straws and the<br clear="none">> lightning bolt is made of silver foil. The message that this painting<br clear="none">> gives away is that although one has gone through bad times, good times<br clear="none">> are yet to come. The dry grass represents bad times whereas the<br clear="none">> lightning bolt reminds one that showers are soon to come, so one can<br clear="none">> expect great things to happen!<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> I am currently looking to connect to other blind artists so that we<br clear="none">> can exchange ideas and share experiences. It would be nice to know<br clear="none">> what you think of these paintings. I'm sorry if my email was too long,<br clear="none">> going to end it for now. Looking forward to connecting to you all.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Thanks and regards,<br clear="none">> Aishwarya<br clear="none">> <Happy blossoms 1.jpg><An evening in Paris.jpg><Caribbean Feast.jpg><Great expectations.jpg>_______________________________________________<br clear="none">> TAGS mailing list<br clear="none">> <a href="mailto:TAGS@nfbnet.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:TAGS@nfbnet.org">TAGS@nfbnet.org</a><br clear="none">> <a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tags_nfbnet.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tags_nfbnet.org</a><br clear="none">> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for TAGS:<br clear="none">> <a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/snowflake9587%40gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/snowflake9587%40gmail.com</a>
<div class="yqt5145167110" id="yqtfd12476"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">TAGS mailing list<br clear="none"><a href="mailto:TAGS@nfbnet.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:TAGS@nfbnet.org">TAGS@nfbnet.org</a><br clear="none"><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tags_nfbnet.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tags_nfbnet.org</a><br clear="none">To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for TAGS:<br clear="none"><a href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/ydnest%40aol.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tags_nfbnet.org/ydnest%40aol.com</a><br clear="none"></div>
</div>
</div>
</font>