Media and disability conference 13-14 June 2003, Athens, Greece

īLA PASION DE VIVIRī	 a shortfilm by ANA MARTINEZ (Spain)

English text

Passion for life

Scene I
I dreamed that I returned to the Prado Museum. The artworks there marvelled me, and in a positive way, I envy the great painters. And I wondered if one day I could paint like these magnificent artists.

Velazquez painting of the spinsters is one that impresses me the most. The composition, the way the  figures, usually women, are depicted  and the contrast between the different levels – the background being the brightest, creating backlight and making the central figure more diffuse.


In the Prado I get this feeling of envy, wanting to be able to work like him, like Velazquez. If I went to the Prado, I would of course need a guide who could explain and describe in detail those paintings that I like the most.

Scene II
Woman:
Which  one that I like best? Oh, thatīs difficult to say. There are many that I like, especially renaissance painters, like Botacelli, with his īThe birth of Spring.

Man:
Touch is fundamental for the blind. The experience of touching paintings and sculptures was not that easy a couple of years ago.

Scene III
Velazquez, to me, is one of the geniuses in the world of painting. His portraits have such clarity, that they could be photographs. 
Apart from Velazquez, I also admire Goya and Dali very much.
In the Prado, or in any other museum, one is not allowed to touch and that makes enjoying the art very difficult for a blind person.

Scene IV
My visual problems started in 1980. I underwent several operations; I could see, became blind, could see again, several times,  until I became totally blind in 1990.  

Since childhood I loved to draw and paint.  I studied publicity and arts to become an art director. Photography, decoration and everything related to the plastic arts. I also studied drawing and painting. Later I worked for advertising agencies, but due to my loss of sight, I had to leave my professional career. 


Scene V
But one summer I was collecting my paint and other material to throw it all away,  and my mother asked me why I was doing that. I said, it is absurd to keep it, as I canīt see anything anymore! But she said, why not give it a try first?

Well, her words made me thinking. And I went over it again and again in my mind, thinking about ways to take up painting again. I started off, very simply, and by doing it, I slowly and step by step developed my own technique.

The first results clearly showed many defects. The first painting I made that summer on the coast,   was inspired by a sunset over the sea.

Scene VI
Painting is hand work, elaborating the painting with ability and with thought, using rubber bands and other materials. These help me to set the perimetres,  to mark the composition. And then I start the actual painting.

I am making a view on Iguazu (Brazil), at the background the cataract, very clear and bright, and more at the foreground a bridge, marked with rubber bands.
I remember Iguazu, the majestic cataracts, so bright and intensly white, that it hurt your eyes. The contrast of the river with the  green of the trees and plants and even the roots that rose from the ground. Such contrasts in  light and colours, that is truly beautiful.


Scene VII
I try to design and draw every painting in my mind, based on dreams or creativity. My imagination helps me, and I have a strong memory, even more so now that I am blind.

I can tell you as an anecdote, that I have been in places, seeing, and that I remember them perfectly and in detail, not seeing anything at all.

In the beginning, I only painted landscapes, as I found them easier to do. These are imaginary landscapes. I donīt know if they truly exist or not, but trees exist everywhere, as do mountains and rocks and houses.

Scene VIII
Then I started painting still life, taking oranges or apples and touching them, creating the forms with wire, designing  the perspective and composition and then painting the still life.

Scene IX
When losing vision, the other senses become more important. In my case, touch is what I have developed the most. I use oil paint as it is thicker and more compact than other paints and when dry, you easily feel the relief.



Scene X
The colours are a bit more complicated. Despite being blind for many years now, I still remember colours. All my paint tubes are marked in Braille and I use 3 shades of each colour. For example green: middle, light and dark green. If I want it lighter still, I take the light green and add some white.

When I became blind, logically, I had absurd dreams. And even though some say it is impossible, I dream in colours and not in black and white.
When I dream a landscape, the colours that are the clearest are īrecordedī in my mind. I then try to reproduce  it on the canvas.

All this is, as I call it, painting from the dark, from within. 
When you are awake the images donīt reach your brain, unless you touch the object or person. You can imagine how it is, but you canīt see it. But when you sleep, the subjects come to your mind, and these are the subjects that you find in my paintings.

Scene XI
Man:
This is her head, her back, her body, ging down, her buttocks and her legs.

Rafael: 
When I decided to do human figures, my problem was, as I canīt see the person, that I had to touch. But that is very difficult, as  people –logically- dontīwant to pose and be touched, and I understand that.

But, I have, thanks to my career in publicity, imagination. I paint from memory and creative imagination. I try to avoid details, showing the figure from aside, from behind, or inclined. As I canīt see nor touch, I have to paint  from these angles and in such positions so that i.e. breasts are not shown. Until of course, I find a model who enables me to fully paint the human figure.

For the proportions of landscapes, buildings, streets, for the perspective, and volumes, also of persons, I  rely on my memory, and they are painted  on the basis of shadows


Scene XII

Woman:
 īRain in the cityī, when I touch it, it seems a bit more difficult to recognize what it is. In the other painting the forms were easier: circles, strait lines, diagonal ones and squares. This one has many lines and much detail. You feel the relief, but I think this painting is easier for sighted people. The details are difficult to recognize. This could be a window,  and this could be a figure or an umbrella.

Scene XIII
I invite people to close their eyes and to walk through their house. They know their house, of course, but with your eyes closed, you will see that it is more difficult to go from one place to another. Or, to get up when everything is still dark and to go to another room, to pick up an object, and you will see that it is not that easy.



Scene XIV

Susana:
I liked to draw, but when I lost my vision, I got in touch with Rafael and he is teaching me me the techniques of painting.

Rafael: Susana, what are you doing now?

Susana:I am checking the mountains.

Rafael: Ok, we will work on them. Now, here is some grey paint for you, at your left, take it, get your position right and try to fill up the mountain.

Susana:
I feel good with Rafael. I am just starting and it is quite complicated, especially in the beginning, all the elastic bands I had to use, and also to get an idea of the proportions. It is not easy, but little by little I am getting the hang of it. 
When you tell people that you paint, they think it must be surrealistic. To be with someone to share your worries with, who understands you, really helps to go on.


Scene XV

Boy:
I see shadows. There is something there, holes, flowers, wait, more holes here, these are the petals.


Scene XVI

Miguel Moreno:
Here in our Museum of ONCE, we offer exposition spaces to show the creativity of blind and partially sighted artists.

These are made by Rosa Garriga, who became blind at age 53, and she  continues making her artworks.

Now we will go to the sculptures of Cesar Delgado.This is a monument dedicated to  Louis Braille. It shows how universal the Braille system is, and with our fingertips we can easily get the picture of the dots that are the letters.

We have several works of art by blind and partially sighted artists, amongst them the paintings made by the blind artist Rafael Arias.

Scene XVII

It has given me great satisfaction. Because thinking that I can acutally make a painting, being blind, may seem unthinkable. But you can do it. With much patience and constancy. Indeed painting gives me much satisfaction and personal pride in a way that is difficult to describe.

We need to encourage people to paint or to take up any other kind of activity, and to show that, yes, there are many obstacles that make everything much more difficult, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.



B.J. Blokland
June 2003