“Persevere”, “Rise”, “Flow”, “Connect”. These are the titles of 4 paintings Vera Popovic created for an exciting art project in British Columbia..

We’re back this week with Part 2 of our look back at “Your Eyes, My Vision”, a program in B.C. where blind adults were paired with sighted facilitators to encourage, create, and showcase “visual” art. It consisted of an online VocalEye event where some of the artists got to show and talk about their creations. There was also an in person show in Victoria where some of the participants had the opportunity to display and sell their artwork.

On part 2, we meet Vera Popovic who shares first about her background and long time love of art. As a preschool teacher for 40 years, Popovic discusses the importance of getting away from rigid structure and providing more freedom when creating art. Like Delores Thompson in part 1, Vera chose painting as her medium. The similarities end there as they each come from such different life experiences which in turn changes how they approach painting. Vera was able to use a moulding medium which gave texture to the canvas, something she’d never used before. When painting, Vera points out how the facilitator would tell her she didn’t need to use as much paint at a time, while for her having low vision, she wasn’t able to detect such detail and it didn’t feel like she was measuring out that much. This is another example of facilitator learning from blind artist and vice versa. She was even able to sell three of her paintings at the art show in Victoria, the first time Vera had ever had that chance.

From painting we move to something completely different with Ruth Bieber. Ruth enjoyed art in school, but when she suddenly became legally blind at the age of 7 she adopted the attitude that “blind people and the arts didn’t go together” even though she knew deep down she was an artist. Years later Ruth was introduced to a program in New York called “Art Beyond Sight” which completely changed her assumptions. For “Your Eyes, My Vision” Ruth wanted to try something she hadn’t done before, 3D printing. While the process of designing the files to 3D print isn’t very accessible, Ruth was still able to be very creative and come up with a sculpture that’s quite tactile, even makes sound and has lights woven through it. Ruth’s facilitator drove her to the library so they could print off different pieces which were then glued together for the final creation. Her example shows how the process itself can be the focus and often it takes you somewhere you didn’t envision in the beginning, even better than imagined. It’s all about flexibility and problem solving.

We conclude our 2 part series with the project coordinator, Laurel Dundee. Laurel didn’t create any art for the program as she is sighted, her role as coordinator involved sending emails, matching artists with facilitators, promotion, organizing financials, and providing detailed image descriptions at the VocalEye event. She explains her approach to image descriptions, first describing the artwork as a whole and then going through the piece methodically by giving more detail without too much which can be overbearing. As an artist herself, Laurel works primarily in a digital format through drawing comics, book covers, podcast cover art, and album artwork where her art isn’t very accessible. She hadn’t had experience with blind people before her involvement in this program and it has allowed her to feel more passionate about accessibility and the topics we talk about on Outlook every week.

Thanks to Vera Popovic, Ruth Bieber, and Laurel Dundee for their contributions to this episode.

Here’s the VocalEye event where Bieber shows her artwork:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CymeLjq60KM

Find Laurel Dundee’s website here:

http://laureldundee.com