Exhibit at The Art Guild in Manhasset encourages visitors to touch works created by deaf-blind artists

A musician, Richard Norman Corey — who likes to say "I was born blind beautiful" — sat in an embroidered chair at The Art Guild in Manhasset under a mixed-media collage he created that illustrates his love of music.

The black and white piano keys raised off the surface of the canvas drew a viewer's eye in immediately, surrounded by photos of Corey, 48, of Atlanta, playing keyboards and drums.

Corey has hearing loss as well, the result of a genetic disorder. While sometimes questions to him have to be repeated, "I can hear music," he said. "That’s more important."

Viewers can touch Corey's collage, or any other work on display — a defining feature of The Art Guild's exhibit: "Seeing Differently: A Tactile Art Experience," a showcase of works by deaf-blind individuals, in partnership with the Sands Point-based Helen Keller National Center for DeafBlind Youths and Adults.

The exhibit, which started July 17, ends Thursday, said Lisa Grossman, the guild's executive director.

It features the works of participants in art programs at the Helen Keller National Center.

The center provides comprehensive, vocational rehabilitation programs and draws people from across the country, said Trina Coccarelli, chief advancement and marketing officer of Helen Keller Services, which oversees the national center and its other programs in the region and country.

"We do vocational training for anyone from 16 to seniors," she said. The goal of the training, said Matthew Salaverry, senior marketing manager for Helen Keller Services, is "getting them . . . into employment."

Corey's work features keyboard buttons of various sizes and textures, a nod to buttons on keyboards, synthesizers and organs. Larger circular pieces on the artwork symbolize different textures of various styles of drums.

At The Art Guild on Tuesday, Corey, who has been at the center recently as he looks to "regroup" and move into music production, joined fellow Keller center participants with works on display: Joseph Norton, 23, of Aiken, South Carolina and Payton Martin, 19, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The exhibit also features the art of several other center participants.

Martin, who came to the center for an assessment in mid-June, stood before three pieces she created. Two include photographs imposed upon a kaleidoscope of color she said was created by pouring paint on a canvas and swirling it around.

Speaking in American Sign Language through an interpreter — Martin was born deaf and has diminished sight because of Usher syndrome, a rare genetic disease — said engaging in art "helps me calm down," and through it, she is "expressing how I feel and I’m super motivated to continue."

Norton, who is at the center for training in independent living, stood before his painting of Godzilla wreaking havoc on New York City in full view of the Statue of Liberty. He has gotten a job at Crumbl Cookies through his vocational training at the Helen Keller National Center, he said, work he enjoys. He also likes engaging in the artistic enterprise, which includes digital art and working with plaster. 

Norton, who has "low vision" because of CHARGE syndrome, a disorder that affects many areas of the body, said he was "very proud" to have his artwork displayed in a gallery. "I never thought I would have art displayed like this before."

The art classes at the center are open to all participants.

"After a couple of weeks if they decide it’s not for them, that’s fine. But 90% of the time they stick with it," said Antonia Isnardi, the center's senior instructor in creative arts.

Isnardi said she tries to impart how art "can translate to other areas of their life, just by being creative, being a problem-solver."

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie