Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Acrylic on panel
24 × 24 inches
Copyright Wrona Gall
The Title as the Clue
Because the visual world is essential to me as an artist, I could not imagine what it’s like to be blind and to have art, the focus of my life, completely unavailable to me. In my research about this question in the 1970s, I learned the Art Institute of Chicago had a Touch Gallery that exhibited various sculptures that a blind person could experience through their fingertips. This still didn’t open the world of paintings to the non-sighted, so I experimented and eventually began to include braille as a way of reaching through artwork a person who cannot see.
My work was included in an exhibit at the Illinois Artisans Gallery and the visitors amazed me. I described the sky and ground while visitors ran their fingers over the painting. Each person smiled when they encountered the braille and we had wonderful discussions about our different experiences of our worlds. Of course, it was a very different discussion with people who once had vision.
After expanding the concept, I invited several well-known artists including Vito Acconci who agreed to participate in an exhibit with Horizons for the Blind. We received a grant from the Illinois Arts Council but the financial manager of Horizons misappropriated the funds, and because the Horizons director would not hold the man accountable, the show didn’t happen.
I donated art to Hadley School for the Blind’s fundraiser, but it wasn’t enough, so recently I decided to again pursue including braille in my work. I still want to achieve that moving interaction with the visually impaired. -Wrona Gall
Acrylic on panel
24 × 24 inches
Copyright Wrona Gall
The Title as the Clue
Because the visual world is essential to me as an artist, I could not imagine what it’s like to be blind and to have art, the focus of my life, completely unavailable to me. In my research about this question in the 1970s, I learned the Art Institute of Chicago had a Touch Gallery that exhibited various sculptures that a blind person could experience through their fingertips. This still didn’t open the world of paintings to the non-sighted, so I experimented and eventually began to include braille as a way of reaching through artwork a person who cannot see.
My work was included in an exhibit at the Illinois Artisans Gallery and the visitors amazed me. I described the sky and ground while visitors ran their fingers over the painting. Each person smiled when they encountered the braille and we had wonderful discussions about our different experiences of our worlds. Of course, it was a very different discussion with people who once had vision.
After expanding the concept, I invited several well-known artists including Vito Acconci who agreed to participate in an exhibit with Horizons for the Blind. We received a grant from the Illinois Arts Council but the financial manager of Horizons misappropriated the funds, and because the Horizons director would not hold the man accountable, the show didn’t happen.
I donated art to Hadley School for the Blind’s fundraiser, but it wasn’t enough, so recently I decided to again pursue including braille in my work. I still want to achieve that moving interaction with the visually impaired. -Wrona Gall