Artful Alchemy: The Story Continues . . .

Artful Alchemy: Physically Challenged Fiber Artists Creating Edited by Anne Copeland, with assistance from Barbara William for overall content decisions, this book relates the alchemy involved in the artful transformations of 23 severely physically challenged fiber artists, many whom are internationally known.  The book is the culmination of a very small but very successful 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that was founded in 2005 by Anne Copeland to provide assistance for physically challenged fiber artists with getting adequate and affordable exposure for their work and to help them with physical development. The organization provided exhibits and shows through assistance from various venues in the United States, some of which held traveling venues.  The first year, we curated an exhibit called "My World in Black and White."  That exhibit attracted some 121 participants from all over the world, and we had 10 live venues for it, all of which were well attended.  We oper...

Reading at Your Fingertips If you love to read, but are limited in your ability to get out and about, www.Gutenberg.org    has some 56,000 Ebooks you can download and read.  Their only qualification is that you do not use anything but your computer.  However, I imagine if you write them first and let them know that you are blind and need to use your reading machine, you can use their system with no problem.  Just be sure to let them know.  This is a great opportunity to have regular books on a huge variety of subjects available for you.  

Helping You to Heal Your Disabilities Practitioners and patients in China practicing the new positive Tai Ji movements for people with severe physical and emotional challenges. It is no secret that the body requires movement to assist with circulation for the muscles and organs.   Many people who are in wheelchairs or otherwise physically challenged believe that their disabilities cannot improve, and that they will be suffering for the remainder of their lives. Dr. Zibin Guo, a trained medical anthropologist with many years of training and teaching experience with Tai Ji (or Tai Chi), a form of Chinese traditional healing arts had believed that a modified form of Tai Ji practice that could be effectively utilized by people with various physical and mental challenges. He had worked with many people in wheelchairs and knew the importance of movement to provide nourishment and healing for the body. In 2005, Dr. Guo made a proposal of promoting wheelchair Tai Ji d...

The Waiting Room . . . I went to the oncologist the other day, and I have to say (and I am sure it sounds odd) that I like waiting rooms. There were plenty of us women in there, and I always love to strike up a conversation when I am in a waiting room for anything. One of the senior ladies was talking about her extremely rare type of cancer of the appendix that is fatal in known cases. We all sort of chimed in about how, when you first learn you have any form of cancer, you are sort of taken aback because if you speak to 50 other women, they will all offer different experiences, knowledge, and their feelings about what they have been through – not just the cancer itself, but their lives before and after. But it is always good, and there is a sort of community that comes of it. It is not a pity party at all because suddenly the best comes out of each and every one. As some of you already know, I am a young 76 going on 77, and proud of it too. And I was sitting next to a lady 80...

-  April 03, 2018 We've Come a Long Way, or Have We? In July of 1990, the America n Disability Act was passed, as the culmination of many years, many people fighting to gain rights just as others before them had fought for civil rights of Negroes.  It was another bitter fight, and perhaps few if any lives were lost, but the causes were universal; people wanting to be treated as equals in their access to schooling, to jobs, to entry into public places they often could not go because their wheelchairs were not accommodated by those places, or there were no places if they did manage to get in where they could sit comfortably without being stared at, or having people say things that they could hear about their challenges. And there were barriers of curbs and bumps that these people had to try to maneuver around without falling or otherwise being injured. Today, the situation has reverted in large part to the way it was BEFORE the American Disability Act. Children w...