British artist Sargy Mann lost his sight 25 years ago, but he wasn’t going to give up his passion. He has been painting all of his professional life, first as a teacher and later as a professional artist. In his mid-30s Sargy developed cataracts on both eyes, eventually leading to total blindness.
He continued to paint, saying he decided to experiment and ‘saw’ the canvas go blue when he gave it a go after coming home from hospital. “If you’re determined to keep going, you don’t need to give up,” he says. “Because if your subject is your own experience, then as long as you’re having an experience, you have a subject. And that has turned out to be true even in blindness.”
Twenty-five years after losing his sight, Sargy’s work is highly sought-after by collectors such as Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day Lewis, with paintings regularly selling for upward of £50,000 ($80,000). Sargy is proof that if you have a passion, nothing can stop you.
