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Mary Mesman

I decided to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming an artist. Being the first legally blind student in the Art Department at Madison Area Technical College in 1999 presented challenges for both my instructors and myself. The four prerequisites for the web design program were: drawing fundamentals, design fundamentals, typography (done by hand) and computer graphics. I was allowed to do my work on a larger scale. Special technology setup made it possible for me to follow the instructor in computer classes. My instructors told me that they learned new ways of teaching because of having me in their class.

While studying design fundamentals, I discovered my passion--collage art. Sunlight Creations LLC was formed as an outlet for my collage art and greeting cards. I sold collage cards at Peggy Zalucha's gallery in Mt. Horeb, WI and Art Beat Gallery in Madison, WI. In 2005, I sold artwork at the Art Fair on the Square through the VSA arts of Wisconsin. Absolutely Art Gallery in Madison purchased one of my collage art pieces and cards for resale. Madison area Open Art Studios events for 2004, 2005 and 2006 were very successful for me.

In March of 2006 I received an Honorable Mention Award from the VSA arts of Wisconsin for one of my collage art pieces. My winning collage piece called “Spring Greens” took twenty hours for me to create. You may view this art piece in my collage art gallery.

The Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Madison, Wisconsin opened an Art Gallery in December of 2006. Two other artists and myself had our artwork on display for sale for a year. Our local television network WKOW, an ABC affiliate network, featured a segment on their early morning program in May of 2007 about my artwork along with another female artist at the WCB&VI.

Although I started painting 15 years ago, the decline in my eye sight has made collage art my main media for creating artwork now. In placing the collage elements, I rely on touch as much as vision. Once the glue dries, I can feel where the open spaces are. I use special lighting and magnification to view my work as I progress through creating the piece. The average time it takes me to create an art piece is twenty hours. A couple of detailed art pieces took me close to one hundred hours to complete.

Being legally blind poses challenges for me. By using creative thinking, I have always achieved my artistic objectives whether it’s collage artwork, cards or websites.
Mary Mesman