Works by Sights for Hope Clients and Rehab Therapist Featured in Art Exhibition

By Sights for Hope Team |
A red barn and brown silo are shown along a dirt road lined with tall grasses and trees

Works by two Sights for Hope clients and one of its team members are featured in an art exhibition opening September 30.

The exhibition – titled Another Point of View: 4 Visually Impaired Artists – is sponsored by the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Sights for Hope clients Mary Ann Dunwoodie and Michael Freeman and its Vision Rehabilitation Therapist, Dianne Michels, are among the artists who used their individualized processes to create their paintings.

The exhibition will appear at the Bethlehem Town Hall Rotunda Gallery in Bethlehem, PA, through November 4. It will be open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. A reception co-sponsored by Touchstone Theatre will be held for the artists on Sunday, October 6, at 2 p.m.

Dianne Michels, who has worked with Sights for Hope for more than 30 years, takes photos of her subjects at 12 times their size, prints her photos, folds them into squares, and adds grid lines. She guides her hands around the grid lines to create her vivid pastel images.

Michael Freeman of Easton, PA, is a prolific abstract artist whose works feature tactile components and textures. With each deliberate brushstroke, he layers his canvas with his use of color and texture.

Mary Ann Dunwoodie of Bethlehem, PA, floods her canvas with direct lighting to enable her to apply her colors and forms. Her images are highly personal glimpses into her mind and depict a visual story of her memories and life experiences.

Sights for Hope transforms the lives of people with visual impairments and blindness by removing the barriers to their independence. Sights for Hope’s services teach adaptive skills to accomplish daily life activities; provide supports that counter the effects of visual impairments and blindness; increase access to medical care, healthy food, and other essentials; and advance solutions that enhance sight capabilities. More than 40% of Sights for Hope’s clients live below or near the federal poverty line. Founded in 1928, Sights for Hope carries forward a tradition of service inspired by Helen Keller in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County and is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind.

Image: Painting by Dianne Michels in which a red barn and brown silo are shown along a dirt road lined with tall grasses and trees.