Beyond Sight: How Memory and Touch Forge a New Vision for Artist Manuela Solano

3 hours ago7 min read

For visual artist Manuela Solano, memory is not a fixed record but a dynamic, collaborative partner. Having continued her portrait work after losing her sight, Solano engages in a profound process of cognitive reinvention.'I’ve heard that memories change every time we revisit them,' she notes, a philosophical insight that forms the core of her tactile artistic practice. Her portraits are not static reproductions from a mental archive; they are living negotiations, built from the person she once saw and the person she now constructs through touch, sound, and the emotional charge of a shared moment.This method transforms her studio from a solitary space of observation into a vibrant social hub. Her subjects become active collaborators, describing their own features and moods as Solano’s hands trace the topography of their faces.The resulting paintings, celebrated for their fluid and emotionally resonant quality, defy conventional notions of accuracy. They are triumphs of a different truth—one forged in the crucible of relationship and recollection.Solano’s work challenges the fetishization of the artist's gaze, proposing that the most authentic portrait may not be captured by light, but is instead sculpted from the enduring, evolving power of memory. Her art stands as a powerful testament to the brain's plasticity and a compelling argument for memory not as a faded photograph, but as a living entity we all must learn to engage with anew each day.

#featured

#Manuela Solano

#visual arts

#blindness

#memory

#painting

#process

#adaptation

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