Author Description

Highlights from the work of Carmela Kolman, a New York still life painter with Marfan syndrome, who overcame severe visual handicaps to create vibrant art. After receiving a BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Yale University, she spent her career studying how light affected fruit, roses and other objects. Although she was born blind in one eye and had very poor vision in the other, her struggle against this handicap allowed her to create her art. She died on March 20, 2018 at age 57, after complications that followed her fourth heart surgery. "Carmela Kolman's pictures evoke a fervent joie de vivre, the desire to seize light - to literally "take pleasure" from the act of grasping and portraying its illumination of beautiful natural objects and organic forms. Of course these were in part responses to her delayed acquisition of clear sight, albeit in only one eye, at age 23. And the shadows conjure her congenital, always looming, Marfan syndrome. Her passion for pictorial brightness to forestall the fall of darkness displays her energy, fortitude, and hope. Together these elements made her, and her paintings, admirable and memorable. Carmela's images are vital because she knew darkness, and her striking fusions arouse attention, reflection, and gratitude for their encompassing beauty." --Suzaan Boettger, an art historian, critic, author, and lecturer