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Meghan Sims Visual Artist |
"Through my creativity I have been able to openly express my difference and the way my eyes see."
- Meghan Sims
Meghan artwork beautifully captures her world in day and the night. Meghan was born and lives in 
Kitchener, Ontario. At the age of three, she was diagnosed with Achromatopsia, a condition of profound loss of color vision, reduced vision and severe aversion to light. Meghan has worn red tinted contact lenses and sunglasses to control the severe light sensitivity in the daytime.
In her early years, she suffered through the issues that many achromats go through, often trying to hide their visual problems. But, she found a catharsis in her art, especally in its ability to openly present the differences in how her eyes see the world. Her art stands as a powerful representation of her vision of light, glare and contrast.
In 2006, Meghan was discovered by a local gallery owner, who encouraged her to go public with her work. Since then, she has exhibited in various local galleries and has become active in the local art community, participating in forums such as the K-W Society of Artists.
In 2007 she was featured,in an award-winning 3-part documentary about color, The World of Colours. She has also been featured several times in local magazines and newspapers. In 2008 Meghan was named “Artist of the Year” in Echo Magazine’s yearly poll.
"I count myself lucky to have a passion and twice that to share a passion."
- Meghan Sims
Click Here to View Full Gallery of Images
“I wanted to share with you, my new series of work that I did with a full color palette! As an experiment, I decided to cover my tubes of colored paint so I could no longer read them. I then organized them from darkest to lightest and numbered them accordingly. From here, I chose from photographs I have taken and reproduced the image in oil paints in an attempt to match each color from a tonal perspective.
Meghan is largely inspired, if not driven by her curiosity of visual perception and the power of communicating emotions through images. She paints primarily in black and white, in following her natural eyesight, 
but enjoys experimenting with the idea of color and the emotional effects colors have. Meghan’s sensitivity to light forces her to work quickly, due to the pain it causes when exposed for too long, which is why she favors acrylic paints to oils. Usually painting in extremely low lighting, Meghan will often incorporate glass into her pieces to illuminate the image by refracting light into and outward from the painting.
Meghan uses music as part of her creative process. She reports that she often marks on the back of her paintings, which piece of music she listened to as she created it.
"The fusion of music and visual art is a big - big part of my world. When I am painting, I am driven by music. It literally inspires me so."
- Meghan Sims
Meghan has a broad-ranging talent. She doesn’t follow a strict subject matter, which is in keeping with her desire to show what she sees on a daily basis in the world around her, although she does often branch into abstract and expressionist imagery when the need is there for catharsis or exploration of new ideas and concepts. Meghan feels it is about connecting with people.
"I think a good artist whether it be through music, painting or sculpting should be able to harness that kind of connection with their viewers," said Sims. Art is probably the best communicator across the world."
- Meghan Sims
"Because of my visual condition, I often seek comfort in night landscapes and low-
lighting settings when working, but my eyesight is best represented when I push myself to work in daylight. Where others see life in detail and colors, I am limited to light, shades and shapes. This is most obvious in my daylight paintings where the bright light of the sun affects my eyesight most, making details hard to see. The night paintings are more recognizable to viewers than the day works because I am able to record more detail in those settings. 
Although my works often appear to be surreal or even abstract, they are usually literal representations of my subject matter, which demonstrates my visual field to those with normal eyesight.
My current series Night & Day expresses the dynamic range of my eyesight. I offer the audience a metaphysical experience by suggesting that what they are viewing transcends a two-dimensional image; it is an invitation to view the world through the eyes of an achromat."
"As an artist, I wish to share and express the profound effect art has made in my life. I believe art has an intense power to heal and is a universal communicator for all to see. "
-Meghan Sims
Please visit Meghan's website to see more of her amazing artwork.
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Visit Meghan's Website at http://meghansims.ca/ |