Vision impaired art group

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Noora Remy 0:30

Hello. Welcome to a new episode of New Horizons. This is Noora Remy, and it's a pleasure being with you today. In today's episode, Vaughn Bennison will be interviewing Madeleine popper about an art group that she had initiated. Let's find out what it's all about.

Vaughn Bennison 0:46

Madeleine, thanks for joining us on the program, and welcome to New Horizons. Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Madeleine Popper 0:52

So my name is Madeleine Popper, and I you will notice that I have an accent, and I'm from France. Been in Australia for a long, long, long, long time. So I consider myself Australian too. I've been short sighted since the age of 14, and wearing glasses. I've always been vaguely interested in art at school in France and in Australia. Loved going to museum, etc. And about 20 years ago, I was in France and I was at the Musee d'Orsay and looking at some exhibit, and I noticed that there was something wrong with the way I was looking at this exhibit. 

So coming back to Australia, I went to see an eye specialist who referred me to another eye specialist, and we said that within two years, I will not be able to drive, see people's faces, read... all this sort of thing. And this is exactly what happened. Eventually, I've lost my central vision. I miss not driving a lot because it refers to being independent, but I have great support at home and always somebody willing to take me where I need to go. So, and I, you know, I used to be a caterer. Well, you need to go to do a lot of shopping backwards and forwards, and can't do it anymore, you know. 

So... I sort of retrained myself in different things, but in the end, I'm not efficient anymore. I have to find different ways of doing things, which I'm managing very well, with a bit of frustration every so often feeling sorry for myself for a day or so, and then, you know, lift up my game and moving on.

Vaughn Bennison 3:22

And one of the things that that you have started doing is establishing an art group. Tell us a little bit about that.

Madeleine Popper 3:29

So a few years ago, I sort of saw just because you are legally blind doesn't mean that you can't be involved with visual art. It's a contradiction, but it suits my... it suits me, so I advertise all over Australia, and came up with four people, local people Mel... from Melbourne, and we worked together to start an exhibition, and Gasworks in Port Melbourne was very helpful and was very willing to set us up for the exhibition. And... we did that, I didn't sell anything. And, you know it was... an eye opener that you can be vision impaired and still being involved with visual art, which was my point. 

So with one of the participants, we became very friendly, and we went to art gallery with a seeing eye dog. And the dog's kept on saying, I'm sick and tired of this. And she had a different vision issue. And so we, you know, we continued on the group, and then I stopped doing that. You know, life led me in different ways. And then I, when there was the virus came around, I thought, Oh gosh, what am I going to do with myself? So I decided to actually go to painting, and I took that very seriously. But as time went on, realised that I couldn't see the brush, the end of the brush anymore, so I decided to take up finger painting, and this is what I currently do. Whatever I paint, I paint with my finger.

Vaughn Bennison 5:56

How do you think your journey through vision loss has affected your ability to create art, and what are some of the key things that you think about?

Madeleine Popper 6:05

Art is everywhere. Okay, it's... I do have a bit of peripheral vision, and that's enough for me to perceive what's going on around me visually. But also there's other ways of receiving information, such as hearing - so people discuss things, so you can take a cue out of a discussion and sort of say, Oh, that could be an interesting drawing or painting, political discussion, current affair, books, anything can trigger an idea which you... is a starting point of a painting. It doesn't mean that you follow through completely, but it's a starting point.

And I you need imagination, of course, for that, and I'm lucky that that's the way I function. So anything can trigger a comment, somebody makes a comment, and I sort of think, Okay, that can be an idea. Now I could start a painting, starting on this, that idea and change as I go along. But this... was a trigger point.

Vaughn Bennison 7:37

Have you investigated other forms of artwork that are less visual - such as, for example, you know, woodwork, I guess perhaps embroidery, paper mache, all of that sort of thing? Or is that just not interesting to you?

Madeleine Popper 7:52

So years ago, I went to Vision Australia, and I did some woodwork, and enjoyed that thoroughly, but I don't think I was particularly gifted for that. But then they moved location, and this was not convenient to me, and I've always liked dabbling with my fingers. And as I said, I was a caterer, and for me, cooking is very creative too. It's, once again, it's with the fingers, and it's with colour and presentation. And you know, there's no right or wrong. You just do whatever you feel like. So that suited me very, very well. So embroidery, no, it's not my cup of tea. But painting, definitely. 

I've always... I used to like draw a... drawing with charcoal. Once again, you use charcoal to mix and spread and combine so you can do a lot with not much, and that's what I like. Using my finger is the perfect tool to create texture, you know. So what I do, let's say I put some gloves on, then I put a dab of paint on the tip of my finger, and then by applying different amount of pressure, or let's say, drawing the with the finger, you can create different texture, different thickness. Dabbing create another shape, and you can dab one on top of the other. So it's a very flexible way of creating for me, I know, you know, that's why kids do it. They start with finger painting because they feel the paint, they... is no right or wrong, they can spread themselves and eventually come up with something that's lovely to their eyes.

Vaughn Bennison 10:10

And what about your enjoyment of other people's art? How has that been impacted by your vision loss?

Madeleine Popper 10:16

The first thing is, if something is small, it's a waste of time. For me, it's... something is dark. It's a waste of time for me, I need big pictures with a lot of colour, with lots of contrast, and then I enjoy what I see. Is it necessarily my taste? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But there's always, How did somebody do this? You know, how did it break it down? Because that's what I try to do, not seeing necessarily a person, for example, you can break it down in shapes. You can break down a body into shapes. So when I look at somebody else's artwork, I try to break it down in shapes, and how the shapes relate to each other.

Vaughn Bennison 11:17

And have you been to audio described gallery tours and things like that? Is that useful or impactful for you?

Madeleine Popper 11:24

Yes, I've done a bit of that. But actually what I do is I take a grandchild and go with them and get them to talk to me about it, because it's, first of all, it's a relationship, and then it gives them a way of describing to appreciate. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So I actually prefer doing that... if possible,

Vaughn Bennison 11:58

You've got a group currently running. Tell us a little bit about that, and how many people are involved, and what people might expect to get out of it?

Madeleine Popper 12:08

Our last exhibition was at Guide Dogs Australia, which... wonderful organisation, very supportive. Three of us exhibited art book, and one of us, of our group doesn't paint, but she plays the harp. The requirement is that everybody has to be legally blind. That's a requirement. And you can express your art, whether it's with sculpture or painting or drawing, whichever way you choose to the group is slowly growing. We just acquire, last month, a new person. And we all have different vision issues. We all come from different perspective. And as you know, in art, there's no right or wrong. Everybody does the way they feel, and the receiver of the information sees it the way they want to see it.

Vaughn Bennison 13:16

And how can people find out more information or get involved in the group?

Madeleine Popper 13:21

They can get in touch with me, Madeleine Popper, at madeleine@ronpopper.com.au ... or at Claire Hogan, and we offer you or through Guide Dogs of Australia, they they sort of want to have us as ongoing artists, and they creating an art group in their premises. So yes, Guide Dogs is probably a good point to have stuff.

Vaughn Bennison 14:02

Well, all the best with the group, and hopefully we can get more people interested.

Madeleine Popper 14:07

I hope so. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak.

Noora Remy 14:12

That was Madeleine Popper speaking with Vaughn Bennison. Now, if you would like to get in touch with Blind Citizens Australia, you can call one 800 zero, double three, double six zero. That's 1800 033 660 - or you can email bca@bca.org.au that is BCA at BCA dot org dot AU.

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