By now, everyone has heard of the Turkish phenomenon who goes by the name of Esref Armagan. On the off chance you haven’t heard of him, Esref is an amazing artist who didn’t let his blindness stop him from becoming a painter. In fact, Esref has both convinced and astonished his most critical skeptics.

Esref has been creating beautiful works of art for 35 years, which become even more breathtaking when admirers of his work realize that he has never actually seen any of the things he paints. Take for example his piece titled, “Typical House.”

The details in this portrait are so precise and full of visible information, such as color variation, shadows, light and shade effects, light reflection, contrasts and perspective, you can’t help but to think that Esref is either a fake or has been able to see at some point in his life; how else would he know how to paint using dimension? The truth is Esref began teaching himself how to see with his hands at the age of 6. When asked about this directly, Esref replied, “I started painting and drawing when I was six or seven. I started actually drawing shapes when I was ten or eleven. I started using colored pencils when I was fifteen or sixteen. About the age of twenty-three, I started using oil paints… I am really curious about beauty. People who can see are always talking about beautiful things that I cannot see.”

Esref may not be able to see the beauty about which he speaks with his own eyes, but he can certainly see it using his hands. When creating his masterpieces, Esref has a certain process that he must follow. First, he must be in complete silence. He says this helps him to get inside the portrait and become a part of its canvas. Next, he places all of his paint colors in a row. He begins with white, black, yellow, brown, blue and green, placing them one right next to the other. Esref developed this system based on what each of the colors represent to him; such as red representing heat like the flames from a heater, a candle, or a lamp, or using blue to represent cold. Finally, he begins drawing by using his right hand to trace lines and make impressions on a piece of paper that is placed on a rubberized slate called a Braille stylus. At the same time, he feels his traced lines with his left hand. By using this technique, Esref is able to create incredibly realistic portraits such as his painting titled, “Dolphin - Waves – Sun.”

It was no surprise to hear Esref assert, “No one can call me blind. I can see more with my finger tips than most sighted people can see with their eyes.” It is his determination to be remembered as an artist and his love for beauty that drives Esref to continue creating so many spectacular works of art; however, his most amazing piece isn’t a painting at all, but a not-so-simple sketch of the St. Giovanni Baptistery in Florence, Italy. Esref’s replication of the St. Giovanni Baptistery was both miraculous and significant, because it demonstrated that he was able to apply Brunelleschi’s principles of the three-point perspective to his paintings by “seeing” with his hands. The last time something this amazing occurred was 600 years ago when Filippo Brunelleschi discovered the three-point perspective in the exact same location.

To date, Esref Armagan has become somewhat of a celebrity whose status seems to continue sky rocketing. Just last year, he was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary called, “The Real Superhumans and the Quest for the Future Fantastic.” Esref is continuing his world tour of art galleries and exhibiting his work in countries like the United States, the Czech Republic, China, Italy and the Netherlands. If you would like to see some of his work, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are currently displaying his paintings. If you are on the west coast, try visiting Casa de Esperanza in Seattle, WA. This little bed and breakfast has a gallery which also features some of Esref’s work.

To Esref, his new-found fame is secondary to the dream he has had since he was a child. What legacy does he want? How would he like to be remembered? In Esref’s own words, “I want to be known for being able to see the world through my finger tips. I want to be remembered for my art.”

>Written by d/visible contributor Carl Gist.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Culture, Illustration, Profile, Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.