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<font size=3>Aishwarya, <br>
Sorry, yes, I was referring to Ann Cunningham, who is well known for her
wonderful support of tactile art and artists.<br>
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.<br>
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?<br>
Thanks.<br>
Cordially,<br>
Noel<br><br>
At 02:50 AM 2/8/2019, Aishwarya Pillai wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hello Noel,<br><br>
Thank you for writing to me. It is interesting to know your
feedback<br>
on my art work. I hope someday it will be able to reach out to many<br>
persons with vision loss so that they can experience it as well. As<br>
for calling it tactile paintings, besides using physical elements ,
I<br>
also paint them. My idea behind it is that both sighted and
visually<br>
impaired persons should be able to enjoy and come together to<br>
experience it. I am from India and in this country, there is a
wide<br>
gap between both communities. I hope through these paintings, i
will<br>
be able to bring them together to raise awareness about the
abilities<br>
of persons with vision loss.<br>
I am still learning and trying to make my artwork more durable and<br>
suitable for touch experience. You mentioned about Ann, is she by
any<br>
chance Ann Cunningham? If yes, I am aware of her work and I have<br>
spoken to her once. She is also helping me out to connect with
other<br>
blind artists in Colorado. Her work deeply fasinates me and
would<br>
love to experience it myself one day.<br><br>
With regards,<br>
Aishwarya.<br><br>
On 2/8/19, Noel Runyan <noel@personaldatasystems.com> wrote:<br>
> Aishwarya ,<br>
> Welcome to the list.<br>
> Thanks for sharing the photos of your artworks and their
descriptions with<br>
> us.<br>
> My sighted wife has studied them and said that you should
definitely<br>
> be encouraged to produce more art like them. Hopefully the
members<br>
> of this list will someday have a chance to experience your work by
touch.<br>
> By the way, I wonder if it might be more proper to call such
pieces<br>
> "tactile collage art", rather than "tactile
paintings".<br>
> Whatever it is called, I'm sure many others would like to experience
it.<br>
> I was fascinated by the interesting materials you were able to
shape<br>
> into your tactile art.<br>
> I suppose that there might be some tactile art that is too fragile
to<br>
> be appreciated by tactile examination, although it might be
visually<br>
> appreciated. Certainly art designed for appreciation by touch
needs<br>
> to be constructed of rugged materials, such as Ann's wonderful
slate<br>
> etchings.<br>
> I am curious to know if anyone on this list knows of any
meaningful<br>
> works of art that are only appreciated by touch but might be
visually<br>
> meaningless?<br>
> Cordially,<br>
> Noel<br>
> -<br>
> Noel H. Runyan<br>
> Email: Noel@PersonalDataSystems.com<br>
> Smail: 638 Sobrato Lane, Campbell, CA, 95008, USA<br>
> Phone: 1-408-866-7564<br>
> -<br>
> At 12:05 AM 2/7/2019, Aishwarya Pillai via TAGS wrote:<br>
><br>
>>Hi All,<br>
>><br>
>>I am Aishwarya and i'm new to this list. I work as a
Rehabilitation<br>
>>Counselor and I'm also into tactile paintings for blind
persons. I<br>
>>was looking to connect with blind artists from around the
world. In<br>
>>this regard, I had written to few centres, One of them is NFB.
That's<br>
>>when i got to correspond with Lou Ann who was kind to let me
know<br>
>>about TAGS list.<br>
>>If i may introduce more about myself, I was struck blind 10 years
ago.<br>
>>One of my interests at that time was pencil sketching.
Unfortunately<br>
>>I gave it up as I couldn't pursue it any further. Last
year, I<br>
>>happened to visit a painting gallery in my city. To my
disappointment<br>
>>I could not enjoy any of the paintings there as all of them were
2<br>
>>dimensional. That's when i thought of doing tactile
paintings.<br>
>>I personally believe that art is a form of expression and it
should be<br>
>>experienced by everyone including blind persons. So I
started working<br>
>>on tactile paintings from there on. My first task was to
define<br>
>>colors in a way that it would represent an emotion or meaning.
For<br>
>>example, when I say red, it may represent love, passion on
the<br>
>>positive side and anger on the negative side. My second task was
to<br>
>>choose material for the tactile elements of the painting.
Combining<br>
>>both, I was able to paint 4 tactile paintings. I am
planning to do<br>
>>many more as days go by. I am also in the process of
organizing a<br>
>>workshop and an exhibition at my work place for blind persons so
that<br>
>>they not only learn how to do it themselves but also touch
and<br>
>>experience it. My aim through these programs is to bring them and
the<br>
>>sighted community together to bridge the gap between the two so
that<br>
>>they can enjoy art under one roof.<br>
>>I have attached four images of my paintings to this email.
Below is a<br>
>>description of each one of them for blind persons on this
list.<br>
>>Happy Blossoms:<br>
>>It has blue background and four yellow flowers. The reason I
selected<br>
>>blue is because it represents gloom and I chose yellow for the
flowers<br>
>>because it represents happiness. I used dry leaves for the
petals.<br>
>>The center of the flower is a small circle of golden colored
beads.<br>
>>The message it gives away is that despite the sadness in one's
life,<br>
>>there would always come a moment of happiness that would
surely<br>
>>blossom!<br>
>>An evening in Paris<br>
>>The background elements of this painting are a blue wall and a
table.<br>
>>As for the tactile foreground, towards the left-hand side, there
is a<br>
>>burning candle on a stand and a beaded chain hanging from it.
The<br>
>>bottom end of the chain is broken. So few beads are scattered
around<br>
>>two roses that are placed on the table. Towards the top
right-hand<br>
>>side, a painting frame of the Eiffel tower appears to be hanging
on<br>
>>the wall. I used ice-cream sticks, beads and silver foil for
the<br>
>>candle stand, mixture of glue, water and tissue paper for the
candle,<br>
>>colored paper for the roses and the painting frame of the Eifel
tower.<br>
>>Caribbean feast:<br>
>>This is a painting of a beach with a sunset sky, the sea and the
sand<br>
>>with two coconut trees. I used reddish orange color for the
sky and<br>
>>blue for the beach. The sand is real and was glued to the
canvas. As<br>
>>for the coconut trees, I used silver foil to make its trunks,
one<br>
>>longer than the other. I later layered them with sheets of
blank<br>
>>paper and colored them brown. As for the leaves I used
thick paper,<br>
>>cut it in the right shape and colored them green. I also
glued<br>
>>coconuts that were made of silver foil and tissue paper and glued
them<br>
>>to the trees. Finally, I cut paper like a shape of a flying
bird,<br>
>>colored it black and glued it on the sky.<br>
>> Great Expectations:<br>
>>It has fenced dry yellow-brown grass, dark grey sky, a lightning
bolt,<br>
>>a hut and a windmill. The grass is made of paper that was colored
and<br>
>>cut into thin conical shapes, the fencing is made of ice-cream
sticks<br>
>>and silver foil, the hut is made of paper and silver foil,
the<br>
>>windmill is made of a bead, paper coffee cup and straws and
the<br>
>>lightning bolt is made of silver foil. The message that
this painting<br>
>>gives away is that although one has gone through bad times, good
times<br>
>>are yet to come. The dry grass represents bad times whereas
the<br>
>>lightning bolt reminds one that showers are soon to come, so one
can<br>
>>expect great things to happen!<br>
>><br>
>>I am currently looking to connect to other blind artists so that
we<br>
>>can exchange ideas and share experiences. It would be nice
to know<br>
>>what you think of these paintings. I'm sorry if my email was too
long,<br>
>>going to end it for now. Looking forward to connecting to
you all.<br>
>><br>
>>Thanks and regards,<br>
>>Aishwarya<br>
>><br>
>><br>
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>><br>
>><br>
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>><br>
>><br>
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>><br>
>><br>
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expectations.jpg"<br>
>>X-Attachment-Id: file4<br>
>><br>
>><br>
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