Tonia's Fine Art

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Tonia's Fine Art
Houston, MO
United States
toniad@toniasfineart.com

Home updated April 2012

Welcome!

~About me~
I am a twenty-six year old artist and I am totally self taught.
No "learn how to draw in twenty minutes" books, or any art
classes--just a lot of obsessive and careful time spent drawing the
things that I see or imagine ever since I was a little kid. I like to paint
and draw almost anything.
No one ever told me to draw anything or gave me any lessons.
I've just always had an interest in drawing what I see.
Almost everyone asks me if I've ever had any art classes, they can't
believe that I learned how to draw by my self, without any instruction.
My art is created using visual intuition and skill, with media including pencil,
pen, charcoal, or acrylic.

Sometimes I use my imagination, memory, sometimes a live subject, or
a combination of these elements.
I love the detail and process involved in drawing/painting an image
to create the whole.
All of my drawings are done free-hand(I don't use rulers or grids).
I live in Missouri, close to the small city of Houston. I recently moved to Missouri from upstate New York. My artwork has been displayed at the Albany Museum of History and Art for the annual Blind Artist Society show, based in Albany, New York.

I have Retinopathy of Prematurity(ROP), an eye disorder which causes
the retinas in my eyes to detach; I was born extremely premature. I
have some vision damage as a result of this.
The retina in my left eye detached when I was twenty one and I had
several surgeries on that eye.
It had been detached for so long that it caused permanent damage,
however, there is still some useful vision in that eye. My right eye is
normal, but I had some laser treatment done in that eye too.
I'm a member of BAS (Blind Artist Society).
BAS is a site dedicated to artists with various levels of visual
impairment, mostly people who have eye diseases, including
retinopathy.

Besides drawing, I also love to write. I write articles for a website called Psychiatry Philosophy + Art. I have suffered from mental illness and I'm diagnosed with schizoaffective/bipolar disorder, learning disorder, and Asperger's(autism spectrum/PDD).