Blind Friend

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 03:37
 

A friend of mine lost his sight a few years back and has since become interested in heraldry.  At first it seemed strange for me to try to describe color and shape and the rest of the inherently visual artistic aspects of heraldry to him, but he reminded me that he wasn’t born blind and I got over it… anyway, we put this together and I wanted to know what you all thought…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/Horatio86/Blindcopy.jpg

 

Azure semy of blind eyes proper

 

We’re still working on a crest…

 
Stuart
 
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Stuart
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23 June 2006 09:50
 

Does one really want to commemorate a disability? And then pass it along to the descendants in a semi-permanent fashion? The heraldry I like best has symbols for the family that will apply to those generations which come after as well. Does he have a surname with an associated design which one could work with, or an ancestor of renown that could be used to base his design upon? I am not sure "my forefather suffered from aquired blindness" will impress his future progeny.

If his blindness does mean so much to him, perhaps he would rather commemorate his victory in spite of it by having a symbol of light on his shield, such as a torch or such…

 
Michael Swanson
 
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Michael Swanson
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23 June 2006 09:57
 

My suggestion would be to design the shield to celebrate his heritage and/or personal history, and to place the motto in braille.  That way a future generation, if sighted, can keep it in braille to honor the father, or translate it to english script or latin.  Have the finished product rendered as a word carving with raised features.

 
Guy Power
 
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Guy Power
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23 June 2006 11:18
 

Michael Swanson wrote:

... to place the motto in braille.


Brilliant!

 

—Guy

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 11:19
 

Stuart wrote:

Does one really want to commemorate a disability? And then pass it along to the descendants in a semi-permanent fashion? The heraldry I like best has symbols for the family that will apply to those generations which come after as well. Does he have a surname with an associated design which one could work with, or an ancestor of renown that could be used to base his design upon? I am not sure "my forefather suffered from aquired blindness" will impress his future progeny.

If his blindness does mean so much to him, perhaps he would rather commemorate his victory in spite of it by having a symbol of light on his shield, such as a torch or such…


I spoke with him about this, he is very involved in the blind community.  He does fundraising, helps in support groups, writes for a braille magazine, teaches sunday school at a church for the blind.  He has really embraced his condition, and doesn’t see it as much of a dissability.

 

I agree with the dubious appropriatness of passing this down to his decendents (it is still being debated) but blindness really has become a big part of what who he is, he compared it to the cross on my shield.

 

I like the torch idea, i’ll ask him and we had already talked about a braille motto…

 
Donnchadh
 
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Donnchadh
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23 June 2006 12:36
 

First I understand what the good Doc is saying about future descendents. I also understand your friend’s/client’s desire to express this important development in his life heraldically.

Secondly, I echo Guy’s sentiments regarding Mike’s observation, “brilliant.” That is very good advice.

 

Third, if he decides to change the charge(s) of the shield he could still use the path of the crest (I know…it is debatable if a crest is strictly passed down or not), or, a personal badge as a means of personal expression for his blindness. For example, seeing a blind eye as a crest would be a possibility, or as a personal badge.

 

All that being said it is a rather clever design.

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 13:02
 

I just talked to my friend about some of the suggestions you all have made (please, keep them comming) and he liked Mr. Stuart’s idea about the light to show how much he has overcome… He suggested a sun… like this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/Horatio86/Blind2copy.jpg

 

Azure, semy of blind eyes proper, overall the sun in splender

 
Jeremy K. Hammond
 
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Jeremy K. Hammond
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23 June 2006 13:42
 

Quote:

Since we are actually working on arms for someone I have moved this thread to the members section. We want to make sure that the general public does not think of us as a design firm.


Now back to the business at hand: How did he lose his vision? And what did he do prior?

 

The reason I ask is that you can tell his story. Let’s say he was a coal miner who lost his site due to an accident. You could do Argent a mountain vert charged with 3 lumps of coal sable in chief sable a lighthouse argent. Then it is a tribute to him and how he overcame (the reason it’s in chief) his adversity.

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 15:31
 

T.R. Griffith wrote:

Now back to the business at hand: How did he lose his vision? And what did he do prior?

The reason I ask is that you can tell his story. Let’s say he was a coal miner who lost his site due to an accident. You could do Argent a mountain vert charged with 3 lumps of coal sable in chief sable a lighthouse argent. Then it is a tribute to him and how he overcame (the reason it’s in chief) his adversity.


He was in a car accident in highschool.  He was in the passenger seat when the car hit a parked flatbed truck.  The dash crushed his legs and broke his left femur and right tibia.  When he was in the hospital he developed a clot in his legs that traveled to his brain and caused a stroke.  Now he is completly blind in the left eye and about 95% blind in the right.  he has been blind his entire adult life… but I like the idea of working in more of a life story, I’ll see him this weeked and talk to him about it…

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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23 June 2006 16:22
 

I’d be careful about getting too complicated with the life story aspect of this.  He’ll end up with a shield full of little tiny charges in every color of the rainbow.

My only concern with the design as it now stands is the challenge of depicting blind eyes in a way that distinguishes them from any other eyes.  Heraldry is typically not a genre that lends itself to fine detail.  A future artist confronted with the drawing to work from will probably just produce eyes, and one confronted with the blazon will set there puzzled trying to figure out how to depict eyes as blind.

 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m intrigued by the idea of a field semy of blind eyes (I don’t even have a problem with saddling descendants with arms commemorating blindness—how many centuries old arms are out there that commemorate something about an ancestor that the descendants have nothing in common with?).  I just wonder about the practical problem of portraying them unambiguously.

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 17:42
 

Joseph McMillan wrote:

A future artist confronted with the drawing to work from will probably just produce eyes, and one confronted with the blazon will set there puzzled trying to figure out how to depict eyes as blind.


I lightened the irises to make them gray like they were cataractic… Rich’s eyes aren’t cataractic but it was the only way, short of removing the iris altogether, that I could think of… perhaps it would be better if they were closed… a bit less ambigious but still makes the same point…

 
Hugh Brady
 
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Hugh Brady
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23 June 2006 17:48
 

Why not Or semy of pellets on a chief Sable a sun rising of the first?

(Sorry, I can’t draw)

 

The pellets (sable roundels) allude to blindness and the sun in chief represents the triumph over the blindness much like the original concept, but much easier for an artist to execute, much simpler in design, and still allusive to the client’s personal life.

 

Just a thought…

 
Andemicael
 
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Andemicael
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23 June 2006 18:06
 

perhaps canting arms?  There may be a play on words, or a double meaning, to be found to mean ‘blind.’  Look to other languages, ideally that of his ancestors, if they didn’t speak english.

Ideally, the other meaning of this cant would have some reference to something else in his life.

 
 
Donnchadh
 
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23 June 2006 18:23
 

I agree with Joe’s concern for future artist’s rendering of them. As an artist myself, though only a beginning one when it comes to heraldry, I am apprehensive about this myself. The art I normally do is cartooning, so everything is meant to be non-specific, so maybe that’s why I’m sort of uncomfortable with the idea of a "blind eye" unless you leave them void, or, close as you said.

I like the idea I just don’t know how to make it long lasting in terms of easily drawn up designs.

 

I will say that I really like Hugh’s idea! In that design it does say everything your friend/client wants them to say and it is much easier for future generations of artists to render.

 

OT—- Hugh, how did the heraldry test at the college go?

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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23 June 2006 18:25
 

Andemicael wrote:

perhaps canting arms?

 


his name is Richard Sharp.  We’ve been kicking around various arangments of swords and knives in the crest as a canting device for his last name.

 
Hugh Brady
 
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23 June 2006 21:36
 

OT- Dennis, I don’t take it until mid-August and they don’t publish the results until the fall. But thanks for asking!