Visually and hearing impaired Shorewood woman creates art

SHOREWOOD – Barb Carson of Shorewood, 86, can’t see and scarcely can hear. But she had no trouble walking around her apartment Monday at the Timbers of Shorewood, showing off samples of her paintings, which spanned decades.

There was an oil of one of Carson’s dogs and an oil of her husband, David (deceased); watercolor landscapes, alleys and rustic country buildings; and outdoor scenes from the art classes Carson takes at The Timbers twice a month.

The details of the branches, the scattered acorns and even the tortoise hiding in the grass all speak of Carson’s obvious talent, even though retinitis pigmentosa – a degenerative eye disease – stole her eyesight when Carson was in her 30s.

Ever the optimist, Carson believes this later work has its own genre.

“It’s freestyle, you might call it,” Carson said with a smile.

Carson also brought out a handmade book she created in the 1970s, a poem expressed through watercolor, marker and Braille. Carson started making art in the 1930s during the Depression, when she was a little girl living in a Decatur home that housed three generations of Carson’s family.

“My grandmother encouraged me,” Carson said of making art.

Born hard of hearing, Carson said she attended “deaf school” for five years, starting when she was 8. As an adult, she made greeting cards for Gerlach Barclow in Joliet and belonged to a Joliet artist league.

Although Carson’s favorite medium was watercolor, she preferred oils for her portrait work of family and friends. Carson said she dabbled in sculpture when she belonged to the artist league.

One might think losing the ability to see might devastate a visual artist, but Carson shrugged away that notion.

“It meant nothing to me,” Carson said, “as long as I had something to do.”

Carson’s other artistic outlet was music. She played piano as a child and self-taught herself guitar one day – before her vision was gone – when her husband, David, was watching a television show featuring folk guitar music.

“It reminded me that he had an old guitar up in the attic,” Carson said, “so I went up and got it. … After a while, I gave up on that big Gibson, and my husband got a small Japanese one.”

Elizabeth Klein of Joliet, a retired Joliet West High School French and German teacher, said she met Carson in 1975, around the time of Carson and her husband’s 25th wedding anniversary. Klein has a sister who also has retinitis pigmentosa and had met Carson at a support group.

Klein, who communicates fluently with Carson through sign language, said Carson no longer was making art when Klein met her, but she still enjoyed playing the guitar. So Klein, another folk music devotee, helped Carson refine her skill by taking her to music workshops, as well as the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.

Carson said she often will sit outside her apartment door and play and sing for residents as they walk past. One favorite original composition pertains to one of three service dogs Carson had through the years, a yellow Labrador named Shaarday. Carson sang a few lines, which listed the days of the week.

“Every day is a Shaar-day,” Carson sang as she tapped out the song’s beat.

Since Carson is fluent with Braille, she keeps up with friends via email on her smartphone, takes computer classes and actively participates in a book club with Klein. But The Timbers renewed Carson’s interest in making visual art.

When Carson first moved to The Timbers from Crest Hill four years ago, the senior living community hosted an art show featuring 150 pieces of Carson’s art, said Carson’s niece, Dawn Martin of Joliet.

“They were amazed at her talent,” Martin said.

So was Lynda Mahalik, an art teacher at The Timbers for the last five years. Despite Carson’s partiality for painting and Klein’s presence at lessons to communicate instructions, Mahalik said she makes the lessons as tactile as possible to increase Carson’s sensory engagement. Both Carson’s artistry and attitude impress her.

“She can’t see, and yet she does it,” Mahalik said. “There are people with much more abilities that won’t even try.”

Kim Jackson, activities director at The Timbers of Shorewood, believes Carson’s consistent habit of walking outdoors each day – joyful, serene and with only her cane for company – could be best expressed in a series of photographs.

“As the seasons change,” Jackson said, “only her coat changes.”