Radical Resilience

“I make art to be an encouragement and inspiration to myself and others. I love when I can inspire others to live and to discover wonder in themselves.”

-Charles Blackwell

As a young man, Charles Blackwell’s visual art studies at Sacramento City College were cut short after he fell head-first down a steep slope, damaging his eyesight. An artist since a young age, Charles is now legally blind, only able to use some peripheral vision. He dropped out of school, struggling to reconcile his artistic dreams with his unexpected disability. “I thought, ‘Man, what did I do to deserve this? Why is this happening to me?’”

 

Charles redirected his studies toward sociology and social work, but after graduate school struggled to find employment. “There’s more than just being able to go through daily life after losing your eyesight,” he says. “It comes down to an emotional side. There’s a lot of rejection. Boy, I got hit hard.”

 

When he went blind, Charles’ doctor told him, “take your defect and make it an asset.” Charles has grown to embody this phrase, continuing his lifelong passion of making art by using an entirely new style, freedom, and way of working to compensate for his limited vision. He creates his artwork using primarily ink and canvas, leaning in closely to see through his peripherals, and using rich, vibrant colors.

"Drawing and painting have always been an integral part of my life. One of my earliest memories is copying cartoons created by my Uncle Bernie, who is still a practicing artist at the age of 100!"

 

During the past four decades, I have created many different series of works, including: representations of solar and lunar eclipses; plein air watercolors in San Francisco and overseas; and sky and sea paintings.

 

In addition, I have been creating portraits of friends who have disabilities since the early 1990s. This series brings together three important threads in my life: my experience as a person with a disability, my career working in the disability rights movement, and my love of figure drawing and painting.

 

More recently, I have been exploring ways of merging representation and abstraction. The four pieces in this show are the fruits of this ongoing exploration." 

 

- Bill Bruckner

"As an Autistic person with alexithymia (emotion blindness), I wanted an alternative way to model and study feelings. Traditional tools like the emotion wheel, that encase lived experience in two-dimensional planes and linguistic cul de sacs, do not map to my neurodivergent experience. But more than just creating a way for me to frame and communicate my experience of emotions this project also gives me a vehicle for investigating how others experience emotions."

"For years I was tricked into the idea that real art is in art museums, real artists were the ones with galleries, selling big. Sometimes I still fall back into that mindset. But that hierarchy is yet another symptom of white supremacy, of patriarchy, of classism. Art Museum from Bed is a new/old way of exhibiting work and I believe it is vital not just to the future of my personal practice but also how to think about art objects' role in society. 

 

They function as histories. Made in my home, hosted in yours, made by my hands, held in yours. They function as vessels. Made from the tailpipe of abundance, made from wasted time. They function as bodies. Made from gut punch and wet eyes, made from loud brain and heat."

 

- M Eifler

 

"As a person who identifies as an outsider, my perspective is not within the boundaries of the norm. My work has been informed by this, my abilities, and the relationship of the body to the external world. I believe the body is our first home. And after living for the past nine years in unstable housing, first in the SF Bay area and then in the Seattle area, moving from one residence to another, and another…this belief has become my religion."

"Learning is my Passion. Even as my health has declined, learning continues to be my world. Through my art I am able to go to far away places and not be bound to the limits of a small room. Art is a form of expressing myself without words; it communicates meaning to a wider audience. Thanks to online classes, I have been able to function again and expand my world beyond my wildest expectations. Art With Elders gave me the golden key to open new doors of learning and to feel useful again. I'm very grateful for being alive and to be able to share with others. Thank you for the opportunity to let me show you a little about me.  Enjoy!"

 

- Hilda Ibarra/Haicy

"This kinetic sculpture depicts my evolving experiences with physical disabilities and the accompanying circular ruminations and grieving.  Inspired by my journey balancing self-care and employment, it explores the many manifestations of work. At first glance, colorful elastic bands and yoga mats seem playful, but they obscure the underlying mechanical work that makes this sculpture function.  This piece invites you to peek inside and engage more deeply with the less obvious human work that goes into managing invisible disabilities."

"This kinetic sculpture features physical therapy items in motion- an homage to the 18+ years of exercise routines that have helped me maintain a baseline of function in the face of chronic autoimmune conditions.  Trekking poles bend and creak, exercise bands strain taut, and pneumatic components “huff and puff” to breathe life into the otherwise cold and industrial system. These parts work in unison to explore the themes of struggle, rest, persistence, and growth.  Ultimately, this choreography embodies how I often feel like a robot, cycling through exercises day after day.

 

This sculpture is named after the legal term used by long-term disability policies to define when and how insurance coverage takes effect.  Though widespread, this legal definition can contrast starkly with our colloquial use of the words “Totally” and “Disabled."

 

- NGC Karen  

"The same disabilities that inspired this piece also made it difficult for me to work on it.  Thanks to the following for their generous support!"

 

Corporate Sponsors: Automation Direct & THERABAND

Individuals: Isaac Caswell, Erica Chin, Dave Christensen, Katie Clevenger, Chris Dembia, Caleb Donovick, Blake English, Day Fisher, Angie Heile, Angelika Hirsch, Mishel Johns, Adil Jussupov, Jay Ladenheim, Kandice Lau, Aram LaVan, Matthew LaVan, Michaela LaVan, Anna Lee, Cate Levey, Ben Lokshin, Riley Marangi, Quynh Nguyen, Laurel Regibeau-Rockett, Alyssa Thompson, Raphael Townshend, Forrest Tran, Daniel Virtheim, Lisa Wang, Chris Williams, Kathy Woo, Emma Wood, John Young

Biography

Matthaus, an autistic individual, is passionate about sculpting. Beginning with Play-Doh at 5, he later crafted detailed animals with various materials, including paper and food. He transitioned to using tin foil and clay, creating lifelike sculptures ranging from wildlife to mythological beings. He’s taught foil art in various settings and crafted a 6-foot elephant for the Palo Alto Art Gallery in 2021. Matthaus has collaborated with renowned institutions like the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum and the AbilityPath Art Program.

 

Touch (Tourism) is a touchable tapestry made from square, paper tiles stitched together into blocky letters that spell the word “touch.” The tiles are made from swell-paper, tactile prints and are loosely quilted with yellow, red, and white bookbinding thread. They create five, large black-and-white, capital letters: T-O-U-C-H. Braille labels the upper left corner of each letter, beneath metallic tape. A soft, beige wool, triangular shawl (knit by Rae) hangs above the letter O. It points to stretched areas in the center of the O, marking out a knitting pattern. The abstract and swirling lines on the textured-paper tiles may be recognizable as distorted scans of the shawl’s patterns, which seem to form varied organic and anatomical shapes. Each tile is 8 x 8 inches square, each letter is two feet tall, and altogether the word “touch” is ten feet long. The letters of Touch attach, via ¼” stitches, onto a lacy, black, polyethylene backing with the bottom edge wall-mounted three feet from the floor.

 

Shawl pattern “Miraflores,” from Nicole Bottles. “Touch Tourism” refers to Georgina Kleege’s Chapter 4 in More Than Meets the Eye. Special appreciation and thanks to Carol Cantwell and to the staff of Ruth’s Table.

 

Shades presents a triad of repeating self-portraits with distorted and doubled images of the artist’s face. They are wearing large, dark sunglasses. One portrait is from the neck up, another brings us closer to their smiling face, and the sunglasses dominate the closest view. Multiple copies of the portraits, printed on translucent acetate and vellum letter-sized pages, hang vertically in three layers forming a suspended mobile. They hang from red and yellow ribbons and clear monofilament attached to horizontal dowel rods. These slender wooden rods, tipped with red tape on the left side, hang from the ceiling horizontally like the top of a door frame. Each of the three portrait layers holds a composite grid of twelve, with four pages arranged into three columns. The portraits move slightly with air currents, and natural light filters through them. An empty column, slightly staggered from one layer to the next, suggests an opening that beckons visitors toward the gallery space exterior windows and glass exit door. Yet the complexity of the structure complicates movement toward the outdoors. Audio brings in sounds of traversing San Francisco neighborhoods using a navigation cane and saying hello. 

 

"Special appreciation to Carol, and thanks to the orientation and mobility specialists who navigated with me in 2021."

 

-Rae Lanzerotti

 

Biography
Alex (he/she/they) is a Black biracial, queer "Glamputee" audaciously creating and celebrating the representation they want to see in the world through art and activism. Alex aspires to embody the tenacity of the trailblazers in his lineage and points to disability justice as his North Star. Whether as a counselor, harm reductionist, runway model, film festival juror, or roller skating in drag, Alex always serves the 3 C’s (Curls, Crutches, & Claws), while basking in the pleasure of being in community with those committed to shaping culture towards justice and liberation.

 

He graduated from San Francisco State University with an M.S. in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling and earned the Peggy H. Smith Distinguished Graduate Student award as well as Graduate Student of the Year from the National Council on Rehabilitation Education.

 

As a community organizer and activist, Alex facilitates workshops in a broad spectrum of environments. Armed with bombastic charm, whimsical humor, and a sharp wit, Alex synthesizes professional insight with lived experience to create engaging workshops grounded in cultural humility, intersectionality, and centering the voices of marginalized communities. Alex is passionately committed to educating others on how to adopt a disability justice framework for community building and strives to empower fellow disabled folks to feel included in the movement.

 

"As a disabled artist for the past 28 years, my goal is to keep my mind open to new challenges, to keep learning, and to keep working as long as possible. For art, in its essence, does not degenerate or age!

 

I have been a multimedia artist for most of my life. For the past 48 years, I've enjoyed living in San Francisco as part of the LGBTQ Community. I have worked in collage, acrylics, colored pencil, and my own watercolor/spray paint technique. As a member of the now-defunct puppetry group, "Hand Ghost Theater" I have performed and collaborated on scripts, done music and voiceovers, and designed, built, and painted puppets, masks, and scenery. My work has been shown in many venues but most recently with Art With Elders." 

 

- Kim Ringle

 

About Art With Elders
Fighting elder isolation since 1991, AWE has brought creativity and connection to 12,000 older adults in 75 senior communities through free/low-cost fine arts classes. AWE programs provide older adults from all walks of life with a vehicle for self-expression, social connection, and a presence in the community. Our work to empower elders to imagine and create bears witness to our belief that every person has a right to cultivate and experience a meaningful sense of purpose, accomplishment, and joy throughout the entirety of their life. artwithelders.org

"Both Shattered and Jitter were hand-cut, hand-pieced, and embroidered with cotton, linen, wool, and silk scraps, remnants, and deconstructed clothing. I am not typically drawn to yellow, gold, or orange.

 

In retrospect, given the extreme circumstances under which Shattered came into being, the piece references years of Classical Chinese Medical Self-Care training which understands deep yellow as the color of

centering and balance and black as a nurturing color of gathering inwardly, stillness, and peace.

  

Jitter communicates my experience of neurovisual and cognitive blindness. The jewel tone printed cotton batik-patterned background fabric is set in ordered vertical strips is sprinkled with various blind-stitched appliquéd

squares. The yellow squares jump and dance with my vision."

 

- Claire Spector

 

 

Biography

"I am a neurovisually, legally blind contemporary textile artist. Since injuries in 2005, my near-vision is multiple, misaligned, strobing, and unstable. Sensory processing presents various challenges. I am very sensitive to light,

motion, and geometric patterns. I walk with a red & white cane and use assistive technology. 

 

When I was quite young, my artist mother, Barbara, taught me to sew by hand, to knit, draw, and make prints. Early learning and sense memory provide a great foundation. With six years of rehab, support from art therapist, Catarina Martinico, and encouragement from artist friends, finding workarounds and adaptations makes art-making in a different way possible." 

 

-Claire Spector