The artist's inner eye
Carmelo C. Gannello, world-renowned visually impaired artist, donates artwork to Eye and Ear Infirmary
In October of 2008, Mr. Gannello was honored with a ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of an additional collection of his work which he donated to the University of Illinois Medical Center, Department of Pediatric Oncology. View the photo gallery of the event.
Article by Megan Pellegrini
In 1956, a 36-year-old, Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse worker entered the University of Illinois Medical Center for two surgeries on his detached retina. He emerged a world-renown artist. Fifty years later Carmelo C. Gannello has expressed his gratitude by donating 22 pieces of his art to the University of Illinois at Chicago 's Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Carmelo Gannello and his art in 2006.
A freak ladder accident at the Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse in Joliet, IL., where Gannello worked originally left him with black circles in his right eye. Called “floaters”, they are literally blind spots or intense flashing circles in his line of vision, which interfere with his eyesight. About 10 years later, his left eye also suffered a retina detachment, leaving him legally blind and causing a later eye fluid leak as the retina stretched back over time.
Married with two sons, Gannello had worked as a stock clerk for JC Penney's in New York and Sears to support his family. But his original passion was art. As a young boy growing up in Harlem in New York City, he had been exposed to art at the Jefferson Boys' Club and been granted a scholarship to the National Academy of Design.
“If I can help someone who is visually impaired or sick, then that means more to me than anything else,” he says. “Art helps people heal.” |
After his accident, he was reluctantly granted training in the commercial arts by the Illinois Division of Vocational Rehabilitation at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Many Chicago publishing firms hired him as a book designer but let him go after he failed physical examinations, despite the quality of his work. After his second retina detachment, he was forced to go on Social Security. But this setback encouraged him to focus on his art full time. His doctor at the UIC eye clinic, Charles M. Vygantas, suggested he incorporate his floaters into his artwork.
“We have always encouraged him to show his art,” says Dr. Vygantas. “It is a tremendous inspiration to see someone turn their disability into a creative outlet.”
Previously a representational artist, painting the world as it is, Gannello went back to the Art Institute to study abstract art, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1976. By this point, his art had been featured at the New York and Chicago Public Library, the National Academy Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Oehlshlaeger Gallery, Art Institute, Milwaukee Art Museum and Oak Park's Public Library and Village Hall, amongst other places.
“My accident wasn't the end,” says Gannello. “To me it was just the beginning—a beginning in how I saw and interacted with people. I overcame my disability by my art.” |
Gannello has worked with oil, conte, pastel, watercolor, linocut and mixed media. He begins by making a thumb nail sketch of what he sees. Next, he rearranges the image into a pleasant design. The final step is filtering these images through how his eyes see the world. This process has led to such famous linocuts as the “Door of Opportunity”, “Printed Eye”, “Seeing Hand”, “Double Vision”, “Eye See the World So Beautifully” and “Lone Vision”. For years, he has also exhibited art in the traveling exhibit, “Art of the Eye”, which features works of visually impaired American artists.
Gannello credits his success to the support of his wife, Mavis, support. A journalist and poet, she not only supported him emotionally, but professionally by gathering publicity and writing articles about him.
A crucial aspect of Gannello's recovery is helping other physically challenged individuals. For years, he has contributed to “Very Special Art” exhibits and discussed opportunities for disabled artists at lectures and on television specials. Several years ago, he participated in the National Forum on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“Through art, anyone encountering a physical challenge can forget themselves,” he says. “Just get in there and do it.”
His art has found its final home at the UIC Eye and Ear Infirmary through the assistance of the Oak Park-River Forest Lions Club. President Tina Gaddy contacted Patricia Wager, executive director of development for UIC's College of Medicine and Medical Center, about putting his work on display. Wager then met with Gannello and Dr. Joel Sugar, the department's interim director at that time. The art now lies in the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
“What could be more beautiful than the eye? I'm so excited about the way we see the world and are a part of it,” he says. |
Dr. Sugar felt it was important to showcase Gannello's work because of its quality, focus on the eye, and living demonstration that one can be a productive, high quality graphic artist—or any professional—even with visual difficulties.
“Having this collection in the University of Illinois at Chicago Eye and Ear Infirmary will be a permanent reminder of Mr. Gannello's talents and his tremendous generosity to inform the viewer that not all people see the world in a similar way,” says Wager.
View the artwork by Carmelo Gannello in the IEEI Gallery.
*As of March 2007 Mr. Gannello has a second display of his work at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Pediatric Clinic at the UIC Medical Center Out Patient Care Clinic, Suite 2E.