Work of muralist who paints by touch to be featured at Wichita gallery
After John Bramblitt lost his vision, he had to learn new ways to navigate through life.
“Finally, after a year, I could leave my apartment and travel across town using my cane,” he said. “I thought, good grief, if I can ‘draw’ across the city and cross streets using a stick, surely I could use the same techniques on a canvas.”
Twenty years later, Bramblitt’s art has taken him all over the world, and he is considered the first-ever muralist who is blind. “Tactile Emotions,” a solo exhibition by the Texas-based artist, will open at Envision Arts Gallery on Friday. Bramblitt will be in attendance at the opening reception, which is free and open to the public.
“Tactile Emotions” is Bramblitt’s first exhibition in which all the work is fully tactile, meaning each painting is designed to be touched.
“if you go into a museum or a gallery it almost feels like you’re walking into a church: be quiet, don’t touch anything,” Bramblitt said. “This show is the exact opposite.”
Each piece is accompanied by an audio description. Gallery visitors can also learn how the artist navigates across his canvases by using thick lines to guide him.
“Every stroke I apply to the canvas gives me more information,” he said, “just like when you’re using a cane or a guide dog to travel on a sidewalk.”
For centuries, artists have tried to understand how to translate the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional field, and Bramblitt insists his work is not all that different.
He blends additives into the paint when he’s mixing it. That way, he can feel the colors while he’s working, the distinct textures signaling the differences between them.
The artist sees colors when listening to music, which also inspires much of the subject matter of his work. It includes portraits that he makes either by feeling a person’s face or using a printer that creates a 3D embossed version of a photograph.
That’s the tool that has allowed Bramblitt to move beyond the canvas into mural painting. Working from a 3D photograph of the building, he uses windows and doors to guide his design. He first creates on an oversized canvas he references while painting. Using a radio to communicate, his wife helps guide him from one part of the wall to another.
Bramblitt’s public art includes a four-story mural on a building in Dallas’ Bishop Arts District, and he will soon begin work on a mural for Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.
“Most people are surprised when someone who is visually impaired can do anything,” he said with a smile. “But there’s nothing special about it. Anyone who is visually impaired can learn how to do this.”
He’s proved that by conducting workshops for museums and other organizations all over the world, teaching both people who are visually impaired as well as sighted people wearing blindfolds. Bramblitt will lead a workshop at Envision Arts Gallery while he is here, although registration for the event is full.
Bramblitt says he didn’t expect or plan for this level of success. When he began painting, he was still struggling with the underlying health problems that resulted in his loss of sight, and his prognosis wasn’t great.
“I was just doing this because it helped me with the anger and depression I was feeling,” he said.
When he first began exhibiting his work, Bramblitt didn’t tell people he was blind. But the word got out, and organizations serving people with disabilities began issuing invitations.
That included Envision, a Wichita-based organization that serves people who are blind and visually impaired. Bramblitt conducted a live painting demonstration at Envision’s annual gala fundraiser in 2018.
Now he’s the first out-of-town artist to have a solo exhibition in the organization’s new gallery, which opened in January.
“Inviting John to exhibit validates what we are trying to do accomplish and what people with disabilities are able to accomplish,” said Sarah Kephart, Envision Arts program and gallery manager.
The gallery primarily exhibits the work of Wichita artists who participate in Envision Arts programming, but it’s open to all artists with disabilities, as well as artists who are interested in creating immersive, accessible work that “advances the gallery experience” for people with disabilities, Kephart said.
“This space is about accessibility, inclusivity, equality and diversity,” she said. “Our goal is to give agency to artists who have long been marginalized.”
If You Go
“Tactile Emotions,” an exhibition by John Bramblitt
Envision Arts Gallery, 801 E. Douglas, Suite 106
The opening reception will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, August 2. Bramblitt will deliver artist remarks at 6:30, and musician Charlie Wilks will perform at 7 p.m.
The gallery is open to the public from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.