“How do you manage to paint?” Stacy Rodrigues, hears this question as soon as she tells people she’s a visually impaired painter. But for Rodrigues, 28, navigating that question is the easier part if one considers what she has had overcome to reach where she is today.
Rodrigues was diagnosed with Stargardt disease also known as Heredomacular Degeneration, an inherited condition causing the gradual bilateral decrease in vision to barely 20 percent. But Stacy had her condition was diagnosed only when she was 14, by which time she had completed her education in a regular school in the State.
But that wasn’t all, Stacy has overcome not just her visual impairment but a life threatening bout of chikungunya, a depression after being repeatedly rejected and told she cannot be employed after college on account of her impairment. Fast forward to today and Rodrigues will host her third painting exhibition at the Kala Academy beginning on October 12 at the Kala Academy.
How did this happen? “I want to reach out to people who have a similar impairment. I know too many people who sit back at home and think that it’s the end of the world. They just lock themselves up thinking that they are too dependent on others,” Stacy said.
Her primary encouragement has been her gym instructor -- Donovan Fernandes -- who has quite literally been at her heels ensuring that she takes to painting and sticks to it. He even ensured that she could use the gym environment to market her paintings with most of the customers being fellow gym enthusiasts. In fact her first paintings were bought by regulars at the gym. But Stacy still had to begin and run the race on her own right from recognising colours to actually start painting on her own. “I would say that I am still learning the art,” Stacy said. For now Stacy has been focusing on painting landscapes. But she also writes poetry and sings in a limited way.
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The exhibition “The World Through My Eyes” is to begin on October 12 at the Kala Academy being inaugurated by writer Damodar Mauzo and will go on till October 14 is being organised in association with the National Association for the Blind.
