Teaching Art to the Blind

On Memorial Day, I had the honor of teaching mosaics to a new friend, Barbara.  I teach mosaics often so this session should be “business as usual.”  Right?  Well, not quite.  First, the story of how we connected…

Barbara is a breast cancer survivor and she attended a fundraiser (last winter) for Team Survivor Northwest.  I was at the same auction and had donated a basic mosaic training session.  I didn’t know who received my gift until I got an email in February from Barbara Oswald.  I gave her a call and we chatted for a bit.  She was very excited about learning mosaics and she knew exactly what she wanted to do, a Tree of Life.  “There’s just one little thing you should know” she said, “I’m legally blind.”

I have to admit this took me by surprise.  I mean, I like a good adventure and enjoy out-of- the-ordinary life experiences but how DO you teach art to the blind?  As it turned out, Barbara already had an art background; she paints and does photography.  She’s also a big supporter of artists with disabilities and invites them to show their work in her gallery at the Bed & Breakfast she owns and runs in Seattle, Casa de Esperanza.  Oh – and she works full time at Bellevue Community College (she puts my whining and sniveling about my day-to-day chores into a new perspective).

As we talked about the possibilities (I didn’t know if I had the ability to teach her with her disability), it became clear that Barbara had the spunk, tenacity and, sense of humor to make this possible.  She would guide me through the process of teaching her.

I went to pick Barbara up at her B&B and on the drive back to my studio in Woodinville, I asked what sight she DID have.  She explained “If you cover your right eye so you can’t see anything (which takes away depth perception) then, put a hand over your left eye and open your fingers to give yourself about 10% vision, then cover that 10% with bubble wrap -  that’s what I can see.”

Barbara uses her fuzzy 10% to its full potential and she LOVES color – she is crazy/wild about color, just as I am!  We were kindred spirits… we were able to tease each other, easily talk about everything and anything and we shared a multi generational heritage from Southern California.  We had a blast! 

We spent nearly 5 hours getting her Tree of Life started.  I was stunned by the exceptional work she did.  Her ability to feel the edges of the glass, visualize the place it was to fit, determine where to cut the glass - went way beyond my expectations.  She was cutting with about 85% accuracy and I rarely see that in a beginning student. 

By the end of the evening, we were laughing so much that it was hard to concentrate on her project.  She was poking fun at me - I was giving it right back to her… at one point I said “I must be crazy to leave a blind woman alone in a glass studio.”  (She kept getting up to go look at the “pretty colors” when I was out of the room.)  “If you get cut, all you’ll get from me is a band aid and no sympathy.”  She was fine with that; she has dealt with a few obstacles in her life.  It just doesn’t bug her.  Nothing stops Barbara from doing what she wants, when she wants to. 

It was a pleasure to meet Barbara, a joy to see her embrace the art of mosaics and a blessing for me to know that in some small way I might have enrich her life by sharing my art.  I can’t wait to see her at my next workshop so I can watch her Tree of Life grow.