On Thursday, April 14, Scott Caruthers’ artwork, along with multiple other JSC students’, were open for viewing in the Dibden gallery for their BFA shows.

Scott’s show was titled, “No Sight Required,” because, for any who don’t know Caruthers, he is mostly blind. But that doesn’t matter. In fact, it’s a key part of his style and how he finds inspiration.
“Many cultures believe that everybody has vision, but it’s not necessarily that you see your vision through your eyes. For me, I see what’s in my head and try to express it to the visual world,” Caruthers said.

Caruthers’ show in Dibden contains examples of his painting, digital and film photography, and his graphic design work. Some of his film photography displayed provides examples of his fondness for alternative printing methods.

Caruthers said that everything shown was made from September up until now, although he hasn’t always been an artist. “For my painting, I’ve always been inspired by . . . there’s this guy called Bomberg, and he lives in Texas. And he is blind also, and he was the first person whose work I really could make out, and it impressed me. But you know I never did art until 3 years ago when I took Ken’s painting class. Never did art really, you know, did finger painting in grade school.”

As far as a favorite piece goes, Caruthers can’t really provide one. “The favorite part of my pieces are during the creation — that’s what I like,” he said, but he does enjoy making his own propaganda posters. “They’re fun. I mean, if you learn the style you can make one up, and put yourself in it with an AK-47, or take the place of Lenin. Just fun stuff, it’s meant to be fun.”

Caruthers continued: “I guess it depends which medium you’re talking. My photography — I have a black and white picture of a non-traditional family and I really like that one for people, or for architecture I like my chromoskedasic work. [For] color, I like one I took that has the best light in it of a student, Alexa.”

He also touched on how he takes his photos, as many probably wonder when they see a blind man with a camera: “Color and the sun, because you know I don’t see the image — we talked about that when we were in Cuba. I look for a particular light and after that, it’s better to be lucky than good . . . the only reason I look in that viewfinder is to catch that particular piece of light.”

Cruthers’ work is on display in the theater wings in Dibden.