Students in Color and Composition class recreate famous artworks for visually impaired | Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts | University of Nebraska–Lincoln

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts

Students in Color and Composition class recreate famous artworks for visually impaired

Allison Wetig, a sophomore studio art major, works on recreating Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” Photo by Michael Reinmiller.

Emily Tran recreated Ando Hiroshighe’s “Koi Fish.”
Lincoln, Neb.–Students in Associate Professor of Art Sandra Williams’ Color and Composition class this Fall completed a project to recreate works of art in a tactual manner to be displayed at the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (NCECBVI) in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

The project challenged students to think about their art in a whole new manner.

“There are very basic design concepts like texture and line, as well as really maybe thinking about some aesthetic qualities like, ‘What does green feel like?’ that apply to this project,” Williams said. “There is so much of our world that is visual. The visual is a very big part of learning and processing the world around you, so what happens when you don’t have that?”

So much of our everyday visual vocabulary includes art.

“If you think about Mondrian’s ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie,’ everyone knows what that is. Everyone knows what ‘Persistence of Memory’ is or ‘Son of Man’ or ‘Scream,’” Williams said. “All you have to do is name those paintings, and everyone automatically has an association. So what happens when you’re left out of that? What my students are doing is very simple. They’re recreating these pieces almost as art quilts.”

Students could choose from a list of pieces to recreate or choose their own.

Curated from Students in Color and Composition class recreate famous artworks for visually impaired | Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts | University of Nebraska–Lincoln