Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993 TAG: 9301150263
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SU CLAUSON-WICKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: PRICES FORK LENGTH: Medium
SHE FEELS HER WAY
Until she lost her sight, Cathy Gunsolus didn't think of herself as an artist. Now she has had one local exhibition and is looking forward to another one."I used to be so critical - I know I would have balled up my first clay mask and never made another one," says Gunsolus, who has been blind since September as a result of muscular dystrophy. "Now I can't see, so I can't criticize. All I can do is feel - and I'm having a lot of fun."
Gunsolus, 36, has been working with clay under the guidance of Blacksburg porcelain artist Darcy Meeker for four months and recently exhibited her own masks at the Gallery of Local Artists in New River Valley Mall. She hopes to display her work this winter at the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley in Pulaski.
"If I wasn't doing this, I could be pretty depressed," she says. "But as it is, I'm learning all the time."
Gunsolus has developed a sense of touch that is as much emotional as tactile. Not only can she sculpt faces based on the contours of her own and others she has seen in the past, but she can determine from the feel of the clay what sort of expression each mask will wear.
"This one just feels like a silly fellow," she says. "That's why I gave him this great, big fleshy mouth to smile with."
Incipient masks have the blank, flat look of pie dough as Gunsolus smooths them out with a rolling pin and lays them over a slightly convex mold. At this stage, she begins to add the individual touches that make her masks unique.
"I'll ask myself, `What does a cheek feel like?' `How about an ear?' I like to pick up the clay and shape it on my own face. I wear clay all the time," she says.
By her own admission, Gunsolus makes a "pretty good nose." They're all large, sometimes three-dimensional sculptures on their own.
"For some reason I have trouble with eyes," she says. "Sometimes I just leave them closed."
Dressing herself and figuring out how to get food in her mouth gracefully posed the biggest problems for Gunsolus when she became blind. Her husband, Jim, a pipe fitter, became adept at selecting coordinated outfits and helping her apply makeup.
"He's been wonderful," she says. "I think my disability has been harder on him than it has on me. He's had to take on more responsibilities. But it's brought us closer together. He used to watch television in the living room while I fixed meals in the kitchen. Now he helps me cook; he helps me shop; he reads me the newspaper and we discuss current issues.
"He doesn't coddle me," she insists. "I've always been disabled. I was born with scoliosis and am probably the only person in the world with plastic bones in my back. I can't stand or sit for very long, so I couldn't find a regular job. But Jim taught me not to give up. `You can do anything if you want to badly enough,' he says."
Short as the average sixth-grader, Gunsolus walks with a slight shuffle, but always seems to look you directly in the eye when she talks.
"Sometimes people feel intimidated by my blindness," she says. "They're afraid of saying something that will hurt my feelings. I try to make a joke of it to put them at ease. `Look,' I tell them, `I don't like this handicap either. It really puts a crimp in my style. But nothing you can say can make it any worse.' "
Gunsolus was told years ago that as her multiple dystrophy progressed, she probably would lose her sight, become crippled or develop diabetes.
"Given the alternatives, I think I did the best," she says. The slow pace of the disease allowed her to work with Virginia's Visually Handicapped Department to learn how to cook, clean house and walk about in public.
Her guide dog, Mugsy, helps her negotiate through malls and across streets. She also uses a paid driver to transport her from her Prices Fork apartment to appointments and volunteer assignments around the New River Valley.
"I like to talk with the families of handicapped children and to visit the sick," she says. "No matter how bad off you are, you can always find someone who needs your help. I think that keeps me going - that and art."