My first attempt to paint after losing my vision was at a sip and paint at the House of Beer in Dunedin Florida.

I was struggling with the project, which was to paint oranges. Everyone was using a jar lid to trace the shape of the orange. This was too small for me to see! I thought for a bit, I looked around, and then the workshop helpers placed a paper plate of oranges in front of me. That was it! Plate sized oranges. I placed it on my wood fence slats and traced my enormous oranges. And of course stuck my fingers in the paint, which I didn’t notice until it was everywhere. Face. Hair. Watchband. This is what it means to be a blind artist.

I think the best part of this project and this painting was looking at each orange, the one on the left, for example, and knowing, ahh yes that orange was after one glass of Prosecco. The one to the right, that was after two glasses of Prosecco. The one in the middle, in the shadows, three. And of course, the leaves, those poor little leaves, there should have been more but I was out of time and out of Prosecco. I was the last one there and it was time to go.