BLOG

English translation of the video

An audio description  must provide the information on the exhibit label, this is, the title of the work – in this case, “Tina Turner, simplemente la mejor” [“Tina Turner, Simply the Best”]; the author – in this case, myself, Cris de Diego; the year the work was created – 2018; the technique – clay on cardboard; and, last but not least, the dimensions of the work. Dimensions are extremely important because, otherwise, a blind person wouldn’t know if they’re facing a big, medium, or small work of art. – this one is 40 cm tall and 30 cm wide, or 16 in tall and 12 in wide.

Now Ruth will begin the exploration. She can touch it because this is a real size tactile relief of the original piece. Colors don’t match the original because sometimes, even though blind people can’t see, we  may still have some remaiming vision, and then we  perceive color  contrast and perceive dark and light so the tactile relief of the painting is black on white color contrast.

I’ll begin explaining the painting to Ruth: this is a composition consisting mainly of a figure and a background. The background is green, and it represents the lights shining on the stage. The figure is a close-up of Tina Turner from her head to her shoulders – I’m having troubles guiding Ruth, this usually would be done guiding the visitor’s hands with my hands, but I can’t do that because if I turn to her, then you won’t hear me speaking to the mic. Anyways, let’s continue. 

The composition has another small figure on  the lower left corner. It is the head of a microphone. The singer is looking directly at the spectator while performing, with the microphone close to her lips.
The main figure occupying almost all the space is her head. Her hair is noticeable, backcombed and very puffy. In the original painting it’s magenta with pink highlights because that’s how I remember it from when I could see her on the stage and the spotlight shined on her. Moving inwards, that’s the singer’s face. Her eyes are very big and almond shaped. You can also notice her wide nose, and her lips, shaped like a heart. Her left arm is slightly more raised than the right one, with her hair falling on both arms.

I actually passed my painting course with honors, maybe it was thanks to this painting too, so I really hope you have enjoyed this show as much as I did when I painted  this great singer and woman. Thank you so much.  Clapping. Thanks so much Cris for your excellent exhibition as usual…