The worst nightmare for a visual artist is to lose vision. A fate worse than death.
In July of 2018 I was driving down Interstate 26 headed from the mountains back to Jacksonville, Florida. I was having trouble seeing. It was as if a curtain was being pulled across my left eye. Ugh. Not good. Long story shortened, my left retina was in the process of detaching. Surgery during the next few days repaired the detachment. Tacked the retina down. There was a residual problem. A cyst formed in the center of my field of vision. Several surgeries later and time corrected the issue and I was left with decent vision in my left eye.
No biggie. My right eye was my good eye anyway. I was able to keep working to a point. A few years in my left eye was OK.
Next in February of 2020 I was watching TV and noticed something strange. The same curtain started pulling from the left side of my right eye. A true “Oh Shit” moment. A trip to my retinologist confirmed that my right retina was detaching.
Got that fixed. The bandages came off and my vision was generally good. The processes more-or-less destroyed the muscles in my pupil so my eyes were both permanently dilated. A problem but I could deal. Went on about my business.
A few weeks later I noticed the same curtain. This time from the right side of my right eye. Doomsday. “It’s like putting a fitted sheet on a bed.” I was told. The retinologist got me in to an operating room on a sunday morning and went to work. “I’m going to have to be aggressive.”
When the bandages came off after that surgery my world was reflected in a fun-house mirror. My right eye didn’t work. Limited vision showed me objects but they were not real. Distorted. Misshapen. Not in the right place.
Many corrective surgeries and procedures left me with 20/400 in my right eye. Yuck.
I kept working. Painting. Writing. Had to give up teaching, curating and exhibition installation.
But, I found, the human brain figures things out. It’s Hell-bent on survival.
Now, I see now and again. Sometimes I can see what I want to see. Some times I can’t.
This article is a preface to a longer story in the works. And an adventure.
