I love all the pretty colors...

[hhsrat]

Another fan of the UM Hospital System.

-rat
(born at UM Hospital)

[Big Wallaby]

Those would go really well in my living room, so I need prints like DMom does.

[BRWombat]

Beautiful work, Bru!

[February]

Aww, you guys are all too sweet you could really make a little pink-shoe-wearing fairy cry, you know.

I've never done prints- these are such small paintings (i have to get some bigger canvas) that I don't know how they'd turn out but I may have to see how that's done...I've had a half a dozen requests for Deciduous! No one is more shocked than I.

I've never really even used those colors before- the yellows and oranges I tended always to stick with the pastel tones (years ago I once painted an entire bedroom set for my oldest sister including an elaborate king-sized headboard-it took me days- it had flowers and details she requested- then a year or two later she turned around and sold it. I swear, I'd have bought it I worked so hard on it...)

I find I'm much more drawn to the brightest possible colors now that my vision is back. After everything being dim for so long- the whole world seems lit by fireworks (could be that no-uv filter thing too)

other paintings I defintely want to do include- how lightning looks to me now (it's vivid purple), how a night street looks without my corrective lenses (every street lamp and car tail light has like a hundred tiny points of light) and I want to do something in vivid purples for my daughter...

Since you are all so sweet I'll post updates when they're done! I actually hope to spend some time painting this evening. Nanowrimo(which I didn't think I'd attempt this year but I think I am going to try for after all) starts on Sunday at 12:01 am and I have to clear the clutter out of my brain if I'm going to try to write a 50K word novel in 30 days...

thanks again, you guys are the best.

love
bru

[February]

Three more paintings are up on the blog! Right at the top of the page.

The first one is very significant to me...it gives as good an explanation as to what colors looked like before my eyes were fixed as I can give. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

I think I'm going to give this one to my surgeon...along with the blanket I'm making for her if I can ever get it finished (I hope before the holidays...I'm a lot slower than I used to be at this stuff...)

In July when I was in WDW for that not a vacation trip, the first night I went into the MK just as far as Main Street (to look for Shorty, whom sadly I didn't find that night and also to have a moment of silence for Austin in case I didn't get to the vigil the next night for any reason)

I stood on Main Street, all lit up, and cried because I realized just how many years it'd been since I'd truly seen it.

I watched the castle change colors with the reduced vision in only the one eye at the time- and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

I still have to try to paint the sunset I watched at 39,000 feet for 2 hours on the flight down, too. I won't ever forget the colors. It's on my 'to do' list.

My next one will be an experiment- I've painted a canvas black and I'm going to try to show how a night street scene looks through aphakic eyes. Every light is like a hundred tiny points of light-- street lights, traffic signals, brake lights on cars. We'll see what I can do with it. The trouble is getting the image from my head and onto the canvas.

~bru

[hobie16]

Wow! What a difference. You have made a vast improvement. I'm looking forward to the sunset.

[February]

Thanks hobie! I hope I can do the sunset justice.

What's really scary is that's what colors were like when I could still see them at all, by the time I had my first surgery I couldn't see anything at all on the left and that was what I saw with the right eye. Then between April when I had that first surgery and August when they finally operated on the right eye, I couldn't even see that much.

The doctor that referred me to the surgeon who helped me told me a couple weeks ago that he really didn't think I'd get much back. He said he thought the left eye was a total lost cause. So needless to say he's thrilled and I owe him a lot because if not for him the other surgeon never would have seen me (she was not taking new patients but since the genetic defects in my eyes are in her specific field of study- the anterior segment, she was curious to see them) She called me 'her challenge'. Unfortunately I turned out to be that and then some. But when I saw her for my last post-op visit she hugged me and wished me luck, and she's keeping in touch with all my other doctors. I know that she spoke to the other opthamologist just a couple weeks ago about my case.

Hopefully something they saw in my rare situation will help them with another patient in the future, I hope. I owe them all so much more than I could thank them for.

Now I'll stop talking about them before I start crying LOL

I owe everyone here a huge thank you too for all your encouragement and support during this odyssey. You're the best and I thank you so much.

hugs

~bru

[hobie16]

Don't worry about doing it justice. Paint what you see. That will put your mark on the subject and make it special.

[techie-13]

Bru~

I look at your paintings and read your postings and I am always in awe of what you accomplish. I am proud to know you even if it is only through a website.
Thank you for sharing so much with us. I look forward to seeing what you do in the future.

[felinefan]

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Bru, you have one of the most sensitive, beautiful souls I've ever met. Your choice of subjects is timeless, and by spending time to really look at these paintings tells so much about you. There's the feeling of simple honesty in each picture, which is one of your attributes. Keep it up!