Blind Awakening Art – You Don’t Need Sight to Have Vision

by Tara L. Simmons

Rhonda Willman has always been the creative type. In fact, she has been a traditional artist for most of her life. She was a commercial artist in the 70s, creating signage for buildings, vehicles, windows and more. This was before the age of computer design – it was all created by hand.

She did pencil sketches, acrylic and oil paintings, and more. Then her career as a realtor took off and art was put on the back burner, all but forgotten.

Rhonda and her husband Harry had a lucrative real estate career for over 22 years. They owned their own agency until the foreclosure crisis ended in 2015. At that time, Harry retired, and Rhonda had to recreate her real estate image. Previously known as the “Foreclosure Queen”, she rebranded herself and joined the team at Tarrant & Harman to continue doing what she loved – selling real estate.

In April of 2021, Rhonda’s life drastically changed. She returned to her home in Brighton after a business trip to Texas and remembers little after walking into her office.

“I remember seeing my two computer monitors, wondering what they were, and what I was supposed to do with them,” Rhonda explained.

Moments later Harry entered her office to welcome her home and found her completely unresponsive. There wasn’t even a pulse. Rhonda was clinically dead. Harry immediately dialed 911 and fortunately a police officer who was only 32 seconds away arrived quickly and began CPR, regaining her pulse, and continued his valiant efforts?until the ambulance arrived. She was taken to Alton Memorial and later transferred to Barnes Hospital.

After six days in ICU and another four days in recovery, Rhonda was sent home with no diagnosis, or even a vague explanation of what had happened to her. There was no stroke, no heart attack or seizure, no aneurysm, no indication of what had caused Rhonda to die unexpectedly at home just a week earlier. At the time of her release, it seemed she had no side effects of this medical trauma, although soon it was discovered that her short-term memory was affected. She often couldn’t remember names, or even the name of an object like a cup, table, door… common everyday items.

Unfortunately, this was just the first medical mystery to attack Rhonda’s body. Six months later she noticed that she was seeing what she described as twinkling lights in the vision of her left eye, then what resembled a purple feather floating in her vision, which ultimately morphed into what resembled something she can only describe as a QR code. She went to her eye doctor who told her it was not an eye problem, but a brain problem. Within 24 hours, the digitized obstruction had completely taken over her vision.

Rhonda was sent back to Barnes Hospital. where they found inflammation surrounding Rhonda’s brain, cutting off blood flow to the optic nerves. Optic nerves cannot be repaired. She was sent home again with no official diagnosis, and with very little vision in her left eye.

“It was like I was looking through wax paper,” Rhonda told me. “I could see movement, light and some contrast, but not true colors. And I had no depth perception.”

Rhonda could no longer drive, but she still had a good right eye, and she could still see her computer well enough to continue working. Another six months passed, and Rhonda noticed that she couldn’t see her computer screen well. Everything looked blurry. She thought perhaps she was straining her right eye while trying to compensate for the loss of vision in the left eye. Or maybe her contact prescription for her right eye had changed and she needed a stronger lens. She contacted her eye doctor again.

“When your eye doctor comes into the room crying, that is not a good sign,” Rhonda said. “She told me how sorry she was, and that in fact she

already had me admitted to Barnes Hospital, because the same thing that had happened to my left eye, was now happening to my right eye.” All the tests that Rhonda had gone through before, over 300 tests, including lumbar punctures, CAT scans, MRIs, and more, were performed again. The result was the same. There was inflammation surrounding her brain and damaging the optic nerves. With no diagnosis for the cause of the inflammation, they had no way to treat it.

“When I came home from Barnes that time, I was a mess,” said Rhonda. “I wasn’t ready to give up my clients and my career at age 61! So, I had a meltdown for a couple weeks. But I also wasn’t ready to give up my life.” Ironically, Rhonda’s father also lost his vision at age 61. It was a similar affliction, but his had a medical diagnosis and as ironic as it was, they said it was not hereditary or even related. Rhonda said, “I watched my father spiral downward after his diagnosis. He let his blindness define who he was and he became totally dependent on others. I was not going to let that happen to me.” She continued, “I believe things happen for a reason, and even though I don’t know the reason for this happening to me, I knew I had to find a new purpose.” Rhonda began getting up at 5 a.m. every morning, meditating, speaking manifestations, and praying. “I was actually searching for meditation videos when I stumbled across a video about fluid art,” she said.

Let me break here to explain something. Only 10% of people that are blind see nothing. Rhonda can “see” some things, as explained earlier. Shapes, shadows, light. She has little peripheral vision and her vertical vision is limited as well. For instance, she could see that I was wearing a printed shirt, but she could not see my head or face. So, when she is looking at a computer screen, she uses a magnifying glass that allows her to see better through the about 2” square field of vision remaining in her right eye. That vision is made possible only by wearing the strongest strength of contact in that eye, and the vision is still impaired.

Now let me tell you about fluid art, which originated in the 1930s. The technique involves mixing acrylic paint with a thinning medium and then pouring onto a canvas. Flowing paint and colors are then manipulated into desired designs. Brushes are rarely used; paints are manipulated with an array of tools not generally associated with art. Fluid art is not a random process; the outcome is guided by an understanding of the physics and chemistry of paints, and the vision in the artist’s mind.

“I thought this would be perfect for me, as I don’t see well enough to be able to use brushes. I did a lot of research – there is science involved to this – different components added to the paint react differently, different tools create different effects. I learned all I could, bought paint and canvases, and started my journey.”

Over the last three years Rhonda has experimented with mediums, tried different tools, some not even heard of for fluid paint before, perfected techniques (and even invented some of her own) to become a masterful fluid artist. Some of her creations are whimsical and fun, some of her art is on functional items and all of it is beautiful – in fact stunning – to view.

For many of her creations she pours the paints and additives onto a canvas and tilts it to let the paint run, directed by how she moves the canvas. She uses marbles, blow dryers, straws, palette knives and other items to move the paint in the direction she envisions. Sometimes she has a design in mind before she begins, other times she just starts and the inspiration comes during the process. Her most used tool is a baker’s cake spinner, mounted inside of a kiddie pool on her dining room table.

“I tend to get a little messy at times,” she laughed.

Rhonda sells her artwork at local markets, via her website and on various social media platforms. You can find her on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. Follow her to find out about upcoming classes where she will demonstrate and teach how to create fluid art.

As beautiful and stunning as her artwork is, Rhonda’s attitude and outlook is even more so. She said, “I don’t think of my blindness as a disability. You can’t just sit back and feel sorry for yourself, or dwell on the bad things that happen to you. Opportunities are out there, sometimes you just have to search them out. And I am living proof that you don’t need sight to have vision.” In addition to her creations shown here and, on her website, and social media platforms, Rhonda also commissions custom work. To contact her or find out more, follow Rhonda on social media at Blind Awakening Art or visit her website at blindawakeningart.com