- Light is very powerful for me.
Yet, it's also something that I'm desperate to hold onto.
It's going, ya know, the lights are going out.
So I'm struggling to hold onto the light.
I was in art school in '79, and the eye doctor said,
"Mr. Erra, you have an eye disease.
"You will be blind in 20 years."
And I said, "what?"
You're telling me this bad news,
I'm gonna make the best art I can ever make.
God dammit, you know, I'm gonna do it.
I see very bright lights, and I can't see dim light at all.
I've never seen a star in my whole life.
For example, I was looking at that view towards Manhattan.
What I see is a very small area,
maybe about half the size of my thumb,
and all around that it's not black,
it's not white, it's not grey, it just doesn't exist.
That's how I see everything else is just nonexistence.
There are a number of visually impaired visual artists now
and we do have a facet in the art world.
(mystical upbeat music plays)
Light painting is a process where you use your mind
as much as your eyes.
It's very long time exposure made in
a darkened room with a flashlight.
The person will be there and I will turn off the lights,
and wherever I don't paint with the flashlight,
it'll be black in the picture.
The fear I have about blindness is very strong.
It's the feeling that
my life will not be worthwhile if I can't see.
But, as a totally blind person,
I will still be able to do the light painting.
So, it is a comfort to know that my work is strong, uh,
even though maybe in the future I won't be able to see it.