Selected artwork from Passionate Focus 2014 -- a juried exhibit of works by artists with vision loss. Passionate Focus is presented by Second Sense.

1. Passionate Focus
2014 -- Artists

2. Constance Avery
Utica, New York
I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in my 30s. I continued to be
independent, but also in denial. With my vision slowly narrowing, it was
necessary for me to slow down. I returned to college and received my
degree in Fine Arts—specifically pottery, photography, and painting.
Creating art through painting and photography has become a release of
positive energy and new-found freedom to feel good about my life and
career. Sometimes I feel like I am looking through a keyhole, but I no
longer feel restricted when I am painting because I express everything I
have seen onto canvas.

3. Fleeting Lights

4. Mist Amongst the Fire

5. Charles Blackwell
Oakland, California
In the past few years I have come to the understanding that my
blindness can be useful in terms of creating art pieces.
The blindness pushes me more towards imagination, causing me to play
with images that come into my thoughts, some from daily life, and
others from cultural involvement and experiences. The process of
putting them on paper or canvas is where my blindness actually becomes
a helpful tool, pushing my creativity towards the abstract, dreamlike,
and making magical realism come alive in the visual art piece.

6. Jazz in the What Not

7. Untitled

8. Julie Bruno
Hockessin, DE
Painting is as much an exercise in using my brain as it is my paintbrushes. When I
think about the various styles of art, my heart wants me to fit into one style, but my
vision and brain dictate alternate styles. Trying to reconcile these and make things
work cohesively causes me believe my artistic expressions are a true balance of head
and heart.
I work predominantly with acrylics but am broadening to include wood and metal. I
am compelled to paint historic buildings and preserve their architectural details. I
like to keep things simple, but save something old in whatever I do.
What a person can do is more important than what they can’t do or how they get to
the end goal. Being a blind painter is about the power of my mind and doing what
others think I can’t do. Because I can.

9. Woodform

10. Martha Cowden
Dayton, Ohio
I was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1942. I began serious art study upon
graduation from high school. I am a high honors Fine Arts graduate of
Sinclair community college in Dayton. My work combines hand built pottery
with fiber coiling, a Native American basketry technique. I believe texture
and shape are important parts of my work and help me achieve a variety
of effects.

11. Easy Does It

12. In The
Company
of Others

13. Stella De Genova
Chicago, IL
My visual impairment forces me to let go of “staying in the lines”.
Perspective and colors may change because of what my eyes see and makes
my style looser and more expressive. I have to work in the best possible
lighting, which usually means daylight along with extra lamps and
magnification for small areas.
I work with pastels for richness and brightness, and sometimes watercolors
for more softness. There is a world of color and images in my head, waiting
to be put on paper. Creating art has always been important to me and even
though my vision loss makes drawing more challenging, it also makes for an
interesting journey.
As a visually impaired artist, it is important to me to help people understand
that we all have the ability to create.

14. Self-
Portrait

15. Nora Devane
Streeter, North Dakota
From my earliest memories I have loved photography and, after being
diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa 14 years ago, I have wanted to
capture more and more of the beauty around me before I can no longer
“see.” After my children were grown, I developed a more serious interest
in learning about photography from family members who were
professionals and through books to learn the ins and outs of manual
cameras.
As a visually impaired photographer I have found solace while capturing
the beauty that surrounds us. When I am out in the field, I let the world
slide away and my camera take me to a place where I feel whole and
invigorated. I hope that others also find the healing and solace through
my work

16. Lighting
Strike

17. Rosemarie Fortney
Milwaukee, WI
Art is the lifelong process of discovering who I am and my place in this universe.
Light has become a vital element of joy to my being as RP causes more
photoreceptor cells to deteriorate. My creations are illuminated by bright colors
contrasting/combating the darkness. My brush strokes have freedom of movement,
which I do not easily experience in my physical, spatial surroundings due to lack
of peripheral vision.
A fusion of techniques—camera lens, adaptive technology—all assist in
maintaining my compositional design since I’m unable to view my entire artwork
as it takes shape. New-found confidence and inspirational Seeing Eye guide dog,
Clyde, helps move my artwork forward—I have a greater desire to create and
accomplish so much more than I would have without vision loss.

18. Eclipse

19. Charles Grover
San Pedro, California
I have macular degeneration, which takes away one’s central, acute vision.
I began experiencing vision loss about twenty years ago, and became
legally blind at the end of 1996.
Not driving means more walking, with its slower pace through the world,
and a more intimate contact with it. The change in vision has also changed
the way I perceive what I see and shoot.
I need magnification for many tasks. I use a hand magnifier to set my
camera, and I must really concentrate on framing a picture.
I’ve done photography intermittently since the mid 1950s, but never with
the eye which MD has given me.
I cherish our deliberate and our accidental beauties, and those in nature. I
enjoy illusion, and I sometimes try for a little mystery, as well as having
some fun.

20. Lit Riffle

21. George Hedges
Chicago, Illinois
I have always liked art, especially to draw. However, due to my
condition, I didn't think about it until I started taking a watercolor class
when I stopped working because my friends encouraged me to pick up a
hobby.
I have sold a number of my pieces and been given a confidence in
myself and my work that the blind can create a vision of the world that
speaks a truth worth sharing. I am very grateful for this.

22. Abstract No. 2

23. Barbara Romain
Los Angeles, California
I earned a BFA from the University of Arts in Philadelphia and an MFA from
Otis College of Arts in Los Angeles. After being diagnosed with Retinitis
Pigmentosa in 1984 and becoming legally blind, I questioned my ability to
continue painting. However, I have transformed my thinking and techniques to
incorporate my physical limitations as an integral part of my work.
I have found that experimenting with color is an important aspect of my work
and my color palette has grown stronger as my sight diminishes. I create
original stencils to form iconic imagery—as free-hand drawing of specific
subjects is often challenging. Gestures of my body replace the precision of my
eyes in making marks on the canvas. In many of my large paintings I use text
as a weaving of words, creating a complex, layered image where the viewer is
invited to create his/her own poetry.
I am now inspired less by what I see and more by what I hear, remember and
imagine.

24. Mother Earth

25. David Simpson
Evanston, Illinois
By filtering real world situations through the lens of a magical realist and
surrealist my art has helped me recover from feeling paralyzed and defeated
after my visual impairment took hold in my everyday life. What I once thought
were the most important things that I could not live without were being taken
away from me. Reanalyzing my life through my artwork helped me see that I
still had reasons to be grateful.
Although I had to change the way I worked, I still had enough eyesight to
produce my art. My visual limitations caused me to use my canvases as a study
in expanding the world both inside and outside of my head. Looking at it
magically gave me the feeling that I was now on an adventure into new
undiscovered worlds. I found a new expanse of space where I could juxtapose
opposing thoughts and feelings to cast a different sort of light upon my situation
and bring about new harmonies that had been invisible to me as a fully sighted
person.
What could be more magical, and more real, than to find and kick up the sparks
of the divine expanse within my illusions of devastation?

26. SaltHouse SugarHouse

27. Yvonne Shortt
Rego Park, New York
I work with paper, paint, and photography to archive communities and
capture transitions. My work is on display across the country and held in
private collections. I am currently the Executive Director of a nonprofit
organization where I share my art with creative minds and activists engaged
in social change.
My current project, Girls In Transition, looks at girls and young women as
they go through many changes: some big; some small. It is about the
transitions that define them; the movement away from teddy bears and
comfort, to loneliness; the slow growth into one's skin.

28. Bobby Sock

29. Naked

30. Red Cup

31. Frank Valliere
Gorham, Maine
Raised in New England and schooled in Boston, I explored many
mediums and subjects. I have worked for the last twenty-
five(forty-five?) years as an all-purpose illustrator, designer,
fabricator, and restorer of everything from jewelry and handbags
to furniture, gardens and landscapes, vehicles toys, and bicycles.
While painting landscapes I am driven by the combined
atmosphere of light, color, shape, and texture. There are seldom
people in my landscapes, but their presence is implied by old
barns and retired, old vehicles. My paintings rarely happen
quickly. They seem to grow over time, taking weeks, months, and
sometimes years to reach maturity. As well as being in numerous
collections, I exhibit regularly around the country and in
international shows.

32. Finder Binder

33. Kurt Weston
Huntington Beach, California
As a legally blind photographer I have overcome the challenges of
producing and exhibiting my art. My limited visual acuity - total blindness
in my left eye and limited peripheral vision, no central vision in my right
eye - permits me to see the world like an impressionist painting.
I entered the field of contemporary art with an extensive art education
(MFA in Photography) combined with fifteen years of work experience as a
professional fashion photographer.
After feeling despair with my vision loss I learned to negotiate and use low
vision magnification devices. Currently, I am using a fresh perspective with
the fashion imagery I loved decades earlier. I digitally arrange my images
much like a composer creates music by creating visual compositions of
what I imagine with my mind’s eye.

34. Amid the Ruins