Overcome disability: John Bramblitt, painter and blind

Losing your sight is always a personal tragedy. But some manage to recover from it to achieve the impossible. The internet is full of fascinating stories of people who have overcome a disability. When John Bramblitt loses his sight, due to late diagnosed Lyme disease and seizure disorders from epilepsy, he thinks his life has come to an abrupt end. But his will and unwavering determination will make him quite simply extraordinary and make him the greatest contemporary blind painter.

Blind and Painter: an impossible combination?

While he admits that art has always been a part of his life, John Bramblitt began painting in 2002 , just a year after losing his sight. He admits that before this accident, he sketched and drew a lot. But the brutal way in which his health problems seemed to have overwhelmed him forced him to stop everything.

"I had in mind this bizarre notion that a visual artist has need his vision … "This notion seems logical for 99.99% of the population. However, John does not make up his mind to stop art. He studies braille and O & M (Orientation and Mobility) in order to learn to adapt his senses, and in particular touch.

After a year, he manages to redo only the way from his apartment to the University without even choosing the wrong room!

It’s a revelation for him. He understands that by using his hands he can determine almost anything. Shapes of trees, texture of buildings, peculiarities of faces …

After this discovery, he decides to return to art and start painting.

An incredible success and an undeniable source of inspiration

His story could have ended with a few paintings made in a workshop at his home. Thanks to his heightened perception , he manages to imagine and distinguish the different colors. He began to paint subjects with increasing accuracy through touch.

This incredible peculiarity allows it to become a subject of choice for the media. He was the subject of several documentaries and became THE most famous blind painter , thanks to a particular style combining Impressionism and Pop Art.

He has been honored three years in a row with the Presidential Service Awards , a civilian award given by the President of the United States. These awards were intended to pay tribute to a whole series of workshops created to bring art closer to disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Now considered to be the greatest blind painter , he tells his story in a book called Shouting in the Dark which was also very successful.

John Bramblitt is more than an artist who has overcome his handicap . He is an inspiration to many people who are visually impaired, but not only.

"Being blind led me to become a painter, and it changed my perception of who I was, what I could do, and made my world a brighter and more colorful place than ever before. "

https: // www .youtube.com / watch? v = G8BiDHmKNrw [/ embed]

Inspirational, you said?