My Art and Macular Degeneration

I have talked about my somewhat newfound obsession with art often. The opportunity to create new art appeared in my life after my husband and I retired over 8 years ago.

Finding new hobbies

We have successfully raised our 4 children, the last one to soon find his way after he graduates college. My free time really became mine, and creating art turned into my newfound passion.

I have experimented with all forms of art. Drawing with special sketching pencils, painting with acrylic paints and watercolors. Creating art with oil pastels or chalk pastels, coloring with colored pencils and I seriously love it all.

Art projects with MMD

This pastime, while exciting, has created a backlog of production. My office/art room is quickly becoming overrun with work.

On any given day you will find a bin filled with painted canvas works, work products line the shelves in this room, piles growing ever slowly sit on the edge of any spot available. There are row after row of artwork lining the room on carefully supporting strings where they are mounted.

Project to profit

Occasionally I am able to sell pieces, shifting some of the overage, much to my husband's delight. I am sure he wonders where all of these projects will end up. I have been able to share my work on social media and have successfully garnered interest from some people. It was this interest in my art that gave me pause one day.

New project

It was this new interest or request that caught me by surprise. My myopic macular degeneration (MMD) does not cause me a lot of problems with the art that I do. I have a designated LED lamp on my art desk, 4 can lights overhead, additional lights on the ceiling fan above my workstation and a back up spot light to combat annoying shadows on any given day.

Challenges

This new project proved to be a new challenge for me. The client had a figurine, one she had had for many years. It was over 2 feet tall of a lovely lady clad in a blue veil, angelic face, depicting a soft robe on her shoulders.

Unfortunately the years had been hard on this statue. There were many chips of color missing, faded spots and general faded coloring. Her request was simple, could I refresh this special piece for her? Always up for a challenge, I said I would try.

The task

I carefully approached this challenge, matching colors and hues in the best way I could. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this job. Brightening and freshening it in the way I thought was best.

The night I finished working on it, I had a revelation: I was not quite done. Even with all the extra lighting I had shining all about me, I was not certain. Was it good enough? Was I really doing right by this project?

Light at the end of the tunnel

Thankfully the next day the sun shone brightly. I was able to carry this piece out onto the back patio, with the best lighting system ever I was able to clearly see and could honestly call this piece complete. Always working around the difficulties of MMD.