[accessibleimage] Potok Tineo


excerpt http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/168600
Artist's failing eyes bring new vision
By Tom Beal
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"It's a miracle: Blind man paints again."
Andrew Potok, a Vermont artist who stopped painting when he lost his vision to retinitis pigmentosa, bristles at stories that credit divine intervention for what is actually determined adaptation. Potok, author of "Ordinary Daylight: Portrait of an Artist Going Blind" and an advocate for the disabled, hasn't met Tucson muralist David Tineo, but he can appreciate Tineo's struggle to paint after losing most of his central vision to macular degeneration. "What he has done that's really great is to learn and be innovative and to do what he needs to do. It's not heroic. It is smart and it's human and it's touching and it's great," Potok said. Last year, in the first of a series of Arizona Daily Star articles on Tineo's art and his vision, Tineo said he had never tested the limits of his artistic ability and hoped his diminishing eyesight might be a catalyst. He's now beginning to feel that has happened, and his one-man show opening Sunday at Galeria Mistica in South Tucson may be the proof. Three mural-sized canvasses he created for the show's entryway hold images that will be familiar to those who have seen Tineo's work around town, but they are rendered in more abstract lines and sometimes in lighter colors. Those familiar with Tineo's work were amazed by the new pieces at a pre-show held for collectors and friends, said Galeria Mistica owner Gene Edwards. "This is a new vision, and I think it's coming from his loss of sight causing him to be freer and more expressive," Edwards said. "There were 'oohs' and 'ahs,' and they went up and touched it." The paintings have a raised surface, a texture created by Tineo's latest adaptation to the loss of his central vision. Tineo laid the nearly 10-by-6-foot canvasses on the floor of his tiny studio and outlined his concepts with a caulk gun and a wet sponge before picking up his paintbrushes. The tactile surface, he said, made it possible for him to paint even on "bad-eye days" when he has the most trouble making out light, shadow and color. "I'm letting go within myself," he said, "not being afraid that I may one day not see at all." 

*If you go *
What: "Tineo: Myth, Legend and Angelic Faith"
Where: Galeria Mistica, 2318 S. Fourth Ave., South Tucson.
When: Artist reception 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Exhibit continues through March 15. Gallery hours are 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 


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