Colourful art brings light to blind Edmonton artist’s life: ‘There’s always a way’

Kim Hammond was 30 years previous when kind 1 diabetes stole her sight nearly in a single day.

“This was again when insulin was very arduous on the eyes,” she defined.

“It was as if grey and black rain had fallen. I stated, ‘Oh no, you must take me to the hospital.’ It was the retinas that bled.”

Regardless of greater than 100 laser surgical procedures and quite a few different bodily surgical procedures, Hammond had no imaginative and prescient in her left eye, and solely two % in her proper eye. She additionally grew to become colour blind.

“It was difficult – I did not wish to depart the home.”

However although her world appears darkish, Hammond has chosen to fill her house and her coronary heart with colour – utilizing her creativity to make vibrant artwork.

“I acquired into the reveals after which ultimately a number of the galleries,” she defined.

“It is an expression. It’s a piece of my soul and you’ll see what I see in my head. It is scary generally!”

The colourful colours and delicate brush strokes of her work depict lovely scenes that she had hidden away in her thoughts, earlier than she misplaced her sight.

Hammond nodded within the path of a portray of inexperienced and yellow farmland, barns and a transparent blue sky.

“[That is] Saskatchewan, once we had been driving throughout the nation and the children had been little and we allow them to run. It… it is in my head.”

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Different artwork, like her private pet portraits, is painstakingly performed over hours – when the situations are excellent.

“It’s a must to wait till it’s gentle sufficient within the room. You can not begin earlier than 10 to 10:30 am. not, and also you’re good till about 1 p.m. Hopefully you will get it performed earlier than then,” smiled Hammond.

She has to get very near the photographs and her work, utilizing highly effective magnifying glasses to carry the pets to life with chalk.

“I am going to find yourself with paint on my nostril, chalk on my face,” Hammond stated.

There are some particulars she wants to explain to her.

“I’ll ship them a message: ‘What colour are the eyes?’ I can by no means inform what colour the eyes are.”

However Hammond takes all of it in stride.

“It is enjoyable for me, and when somebody appreciates it, it is a good larger bonus.”

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Her condo is sort of a miniature artwork gallery, the place her work traces each wall.

Farm fields are depicted time and again.

‘It is so brilliant, it is so yellow – I can see it. It simply hits me each time there’s a canola nation. I feel it is my favourite factor to color.”

She by no means instructed clients about her sight loss.

“Till a yr in the past, I’d say, I’d not market it like that. After which I believed: ‘Why not?’ It is one thing most individuals will not even attempt.”

Now, she embraces it.

“Discover what’s vital to you and go for it. Do not let anybody inform you you possibly can’t do it, and do not imagine you possibly can’t do it.

“There’s at all times a means. It is perhaps totally different, however there may be at all times a means.”

Hammond’s artwork is all on the market, she could be reached at kimscott52@gmail.com.

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