Walking into an art gallery, you can’t help but be impressed by the paintings, pottery, sculptures and other pieces of art on display. Now, imagine how impressed you’d be to see artwork created by individuals who can’t even see what they are making.

That’s what you’ll experience if you come to the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) in downtown Seattle. The library’s “An Expression of Touch” exhibition is taking place in its meeting room. Twelve WTBBL patrons, mainly from Western Washington, created the displayed art. The show ends this Friday at 4 p.m. Today’s Seattle Times has a story about the art show.

One of the featured artists is Eleni Teshome, who spoke at the art show’s opening reception last week. Eleni was an outstanding knitter who suddenly became totally blind in the 1980s. Eleni taught herself how to knit again. Judging by her featured work (pictured above), she taught herself pretty well! Eleni says she “feels the colors” and does the patterns from textures she feels and ideas in her head, not from a pattern.   

Located at 2021 – 9th Avenue in Seattle, WTBBL serves residents of Washington unable to read standard print material due to blindness, visual impairment, physical disability or learning disability.

For more information about the art show, call WTBBL at (206) 615-0400, (800) 542-0866 (toll-free) or (206) 615-0418 (TTY), or e-mail the library at [email protected] . 

To learn more about WTBBL, go here .

WTBBL is part of the Washington State Library, which is a division of the Office of Secretary of State.