EXPRESSIONS

I was diagnosed legally blind at 5 years old. The thing that people with good eyesight forget is that others don’t. I didn’t see people’s faces much growing up except on TV when I sat so close to it I got in everyone else’s way. My vision was so bad that I didn’t look at you when you talked to me. Instead, I turned an ear towards you so I could hear you better, but it looked like I was aloof and turning away…

When I got glasses (and would actually wear them), I loved looking at people’s faces. And I loved seeing all the range of emotions that I felt projected from them. I realized that my own face rarely projected much information. I wasn’t used to expressing myself like that. I hadn’t mirrored much.

I did not think much of my work when I first started in 2015. I thought of it as a journey but although I had a lot of drive, I had no real expectations that anything much would come of it. I just followed the drive. But I kept hearing the same comment from everyone. They loved the way I captured emotion - particularly the eyes. I hear it today. I am flattered and I have no idea what I am doing that makes that happen. I just know when a drawing is expressing the range of emotions I want to express and when it is “done”.

Here are some drawings that, to me, get across the feelings I meant to express.