Bonny Lhotka: Sensory Art

The human soul interacts with the world through our senses: smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing – we need that contact at the very core of our being.  Yet if one sense isn’t available, the overall need doesn’t reduce by that amount.  Instead the other senses have to grow and compensate so that we still have the full joy of the world around us.  Painting and printmaking have long been thought of as a strictly visual art, unavailable to those without sight.  With this series of work, I’ve tried to change that, to bring my images to a whole new audience.

 Doing so has forced me to re-examine my work from a new perspective, to learn to speak in  the same creative words in a different way – transforming colors into textures and patterns that translate visual images into tactile impressions.  Along the way, I’ve realized just how much touch there is even in my visual work: fingers on the keyboard and mouse, the pressure of the paintbrush in my hand, the temperature of the surface when it’s printed, and even the pain when I cut myself making the piece.  Touch has always been a part of visual works, and now it’s time to bring it full circle.

 For years I’ve been focused on ‘bringing the hand’ back into digital art, through many new processes and techniques that I’ve invented.   These works give that phrase a whole new meaning.

 Touch and enjoy.