Biography

 

"I shut my eyes in order to see."
...Paul Gauguin

 

I am a self taught expressionism artist who happens to be near total blindness. My condition is called retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that gradually robs people of their eyesight. Currently I have less than 5 percent vision in my left eye and only a small amount of light perception remaining in my right eye. When I paint, I see less than a 1/4 inch section of the canvas at a time, it's like looking through a straw.  I must also fight through the obstacles of blind spots and nystagmus (involuntary eye movements) in order to create my art.

 

I am a bohemian and I paint what I see, what I think, and what I feel at the moment, and it’s not always pretty. Through my experiences in life, I have discovered the many prejudices people have towards one another. My creations are true from the heart, and I do my best to represent those of us who need a little additional support from the fascism and ignorance that festers in this world. I paint mirror images of society with the use of my memory, and the muted colors I perceive inside the shadows of my world. I let my art do the talking.


"My Eye"
Self Portrait


A few more of my favorite quotes:

"Painting: the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic."
-Ambrose Bierce

"Let each man exercise the art he knows."
-Aristophanes

"The world is my country, science my religion"
-Christiaan Huygens

"And so some day class will supplant race in world affairs.  Race war will then be merely a sideshow to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world."
-Ralph Johnson Bunch

"Insolence and ignorance shown by others can be the best fuel for fierce determination."
-David Kontra

 

 

K N T R A V I S I N