Inventing the VPA

Just so you know, I have a limited bandwidth for visuals (reading, in particular) so I have assistance. Ably serving as my Virtual Presence Administrator (e.g., nudging me to blog) is fellow artist Nava, who helps me by managing the Art of Possibility social networking. Her competence and friendship are priceless, and she's able to log onto the various social networking sites and keep the profiles up to date.

A very public thank you, Nava, for your help. I love you.

The Ending Before the Beginning: Part II

Imagine my surprise when people actually liked my paintings! After a couple years of study I chose to go beyond the hobby level and "be an artist." Very quickly the simple logistics of getting here-to-there with canvases caught up with me. Because of the type of vision loss I have I'm extremely sensitive to light, "photophobia," they call it. Being at an outdoor tented festival all weekend makes me really, really crabby. It's just the brightness of it all. Sadly, no one buys art in the dark.

And if I had all these problems getting around, just think about artists with mobility problems! They must really have a tough time!

After a long-and-only-interesting-to-me bit of field research I founded Art of Possibility LLC, the only art brand exclusively representing physically disabled artists via license in a for-profit model.

I've been reticent about blogging because as a former writer I believe in paying for content; because I only get 24 hours a day instead of the 30 or so I could use; and because bridging the Art of Possibility from just me to a fully developed agency representing other artists means I have, as a business objective, a desire to make it less "the Ketra Show" and more about us, about an idea: inclusion. Compassion. Proof that caring is cool. Evidence that good deeds are good business.

The Ending Before the Beginning

I have successfully avoided this for the last eight years. Some stories beg to be told but for my own the storyteller rebelled. As a writer and editor I could identify "story": I knew it when I lived it, but I didn't want to tell it. I walked away from wordsmithery. As we scrapped up the dot com carnage in 2000 my world faded in a white-glow blur of blindness.

I can still see a little. 90% of all blind people can see something, just not enough to get by without a lot of workarounds. My vision deteriorated over my late 30s. At 40 I was white-cane-swingin' blind.

I picked up a paint brush. My life changed.

What's Art of Possibility Studios all about?

Art of Possibility Studios is the only art publishing and licensing agency exclusively representing physically disabled artists. Founded by award-winning blind painter Ketra Oberlander, Art of Possibility Studios locates and develops art and artists with the unique mission of sharing their work and stories with others to uplift and encourage people regardless of their circumstances.

Art of Possibility Studios provides beautiful imagery on its luxury giftware and via license for select manufacturers interested in socially conscious and cause oriented product lines. Because the work originates from creators who all have significant physical impairment consumers become more than just purchasers — they become true patrons of the arts.