Strike a Chord: Making Visual Art With Failing Sight

One might expect a person who is going blind to retreat into sadness and pity for themselves, but one Bronx woman who has been slowly losing her sight has found solace in art.

On a quiet afternoon at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, Maureen Coulihan attended her customary art therapy class. On this day, she was making a picture that represented her feelings about spring, using things like shells and flower petals. Coulihan attends these sessions several times a week, even though she is going blind. While getting lost in her creation, she talked candidly about her struggles with her diagnosis.

"I'm still in a state of shock from the whole bloody thing," she said. "I keep thinking, 'It's not going to happen. Some miracle will come about and my eyesight will be restored.' I keep thinking of that."

But, Coulihan said, art frees her from some of that anxiety about going blind. 

"It gives me an outlet for expressing myself, and helps me to ask myself questions," she said.

Art therapist Suzanne Deischer has been working with Coulihan for over a year. She's seen a big change in her patient's outlook.

"I think that being able to process some of that loss and change in the art therapy group has helped her start come to terms with who she is now, and appreciate who she is as a person," Deischer said.

Coulihan concurred.

"Creating the flowers, the plants and what have you, I'm seeing that life goes on. In a different way, perhaps, but it does go on," she said.

And even though Coulihan said her vision fades daily, she continues to create pieces of art through her sense of touch and guidance from Deischer.