A scene of people with various disabilities gathered around a blue lake, enjoying their home, community, the out-of-doors, health, recreation, housing, transportation and education with an accessible path for them to a high mountain and large yellow sun on the horizon.  New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.


Community and Internet Resources


Arts and Culture: Artists


Close, Chuck (1940- ) is an American Photorealist painter who does enormous portraits of neutral faces. When Chuck Close was young he was dyslexic and not very athletic. He was told not to consider college. His family fell on hard times and became very poor. He liked to draw, however, and did study and graduated from the University of Washington in 1962. On Dec. 7, 1988 at the age of 49, Close was at the height of his career as a portrait painter when he was stricken with a spinal blood clot that left him a quadriplegic. Although he thought his painting career was over, he now paints from a motorized wheelchair, unable to move from the neck down. He builds his large portraits from small two-inch paintings. His paintings hang in the world's most prestigious museums. For more information on Chuck Close, his life and art check out this website. For an article about his life and triumph, Artist Chuck Close Triumphs Over Learning Disabilities by Emily Sherwood, Ph.D. on Education Update.

Demuth, Charles - (1883-1935) is recognized as a Precisionist, or Cubist-Realist painter. He translated European Cubism into American themes - grain elevators, silos and factories. As a boy, Charles Demuth led a sheltered, protected life because his health was frail. His family was wealthy, interested in the arts and encouraged him to study art. Later in his life he was severly diabetic. He was a master American watercolor painter. For more information on Charles Demuth, his life and his art, check out this website.

Kahlo, Frida - (1907-1954) born in Mexico, is known throughout the world for her unusual, colorful, and sometimes disturbing paintings. Frida Kahlo's disabilities stemmed from childhood polio and a horrible bus accident when she was eighteen. She had relapses of tremendous pain and fatigue all throughout her life, which caused her to be hospitalized for long periods of time, bedridden at times. Many of her paintings reflect the physical pain she suffered through most of her life. For more information about the life of Frida Kahlo, check out the website listed above.

New Sign Rauschenberg, Robert (1925 - 2008) In May, 1999, "ARTNews" magazine featured Robert Rauschenberg, an American Pop Artist, as one of the top twenty-five influential western artists. "Rauschenberg pushed the viewer to accept the unexpected." Rauschenberg had dyslexia, a reading disability that made school very difficult for him. He has stated that his dyslexia helped him in his art. He liked to create prints that combined several different pictures. In an interview he once stated that "…because I am dyslexic, I was very good at the print workshop economically, because I can see backwards and forwards at the same time! I don't have to proof it, I can already see it!" For a personal experience article by the artist, visit LD online - First Person - Robert Rauschenberg in which the artist speaks of his life and work.

For more on the topic of Arts and Culture:

Community and Internet Resources / FAQ / Guides / Books / News Publications and Media

If you have questions or ideas, information and solutions that you would like to share with us, you may contact us by e-mail at: horizons@new-horizons.org or to use our NHU E-Mail Form or NHU Community Discussion Board, click on the links below.
Homepage icon Home  / Disability News  / NHU Quarterly Newsletter
Share Your Knowledge!  / NHU Community Discussion Board  / E-mail Us
About NHU  / Announcements and Features  / Contribute  /  What's New?  /  Site Plan
© Copyright 2004-2009 New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.  
[Updated April 30, 2009]
NHU has no liability for content or goods on the Internet.