Bianca Rafaella is a London based artist. She was born with congenital toxoplasmosis and is blind, which gives her a unique perspective on painting. She has limited vision from her left eye, from which she can see nearby objects for brief moments, and her paintings are a reflection on how she witnesses the world. With her limited sight, her works are largely based on memories and her sense of touch, which is her primary sense. She paints rapidly with her hands, whilst the memory is fresh in her mind, and so she is less likely to lose her place on the canvas.
Her works appear like fragments of memories floating freely in space. I have been exploring memory for a while now in my own work, and have been interested in the different methods of translating memories to painting. I have been interested in Rafaella’s method of depicting memories and I have made my own experiments with painting and drawing memories, with my eyes mostly closed and only internally viewing the memory as I paint. It has been interesting to see how the space within the painting, and the extent to which details are rendered reveal the parts of the memory that I deemed important at the time, and what this shows beyond the surface appearance of the painting. I think this is an aspect of my practice that I will always be interested in and will continue to evolve as time goes on.
One of my attempts at painting from memory
From Blue, Bianca Rafaella, n.d