Shay is nine years old. He is colour blind and nearly legally blind in his left eye with no depth perception as well. How he perceives the world visually is unique and thus his experience in general unique. His vision challenges were diagnosed late, despite all the regular visits to the eye doctor, Shay started wearing glasses in the spring of 2006 near the end of grade two. Before he could speak his favourite color was yellow and remains his favourite today. Shay was never too fond of crayons or coloring, it turned out that his forte was working with pencils and pens, implements with fine points. He is at heart a graphic artist with a flair for the dramatic. Tracy is Shay's artistic mother.

Experience while making this piece: tracy says: I thoroughly enjoyed my experience working on the tactile art project with Shay. There were challenges, Shay was the foreman and artistic designer and I was the labourer. My only other role in the piece was as a safety inspector. I have always had a keen interest in how people perceive the world through all senses and how this then shapes our experience which then influences our perceptions. I never fail to marvel at the knowledge that Shay does not see what I see, what I would give to walk in his shoes.
This piece was a challenge for both Shay and I. Shay is not accustomed to expressing himself creatively with three dimensional artwork. I was challenged in my efforts to encourage him to participate in something outside of his comfort zone. Shay has a critical eye when it comes to his own drawings, so attempting to work with a completely new medium was a big step for us both. We spent roughly five hours straight creating what Shay has named Rhino Dino City. Enjoy!

Experience Making This Piece:
Having previously used tactile color, in many applications, the assembling and fixing of the parts went really smoothly. Orange still gives a little trouble.

Tactile Colour Used: Fine gritty blue, raised line pink, hard bumpy yellow, dashed line purple, fine gritty grey, rough gritty green, hard wavy brown and smooth white.
Other Materials Used: particle board, wooden blocks, pipe cleaners, cylinders with raised lids, small triangular prisms.

Tactile Description:
On a smooth base made of a square of particle board, there are four gritty blue cubes, one at each corner. At the near edge, from right to left are a bristly rhino toy, a granite rock wrapped with pipe cleaners, and a smooth white cylinder with a raised lid. In the centre of the square is a series of rectangular wooden blocks wrapped in raised line pink and hard bumpy yellow. They make a very raised approach to a round birdhouse like a gazebo, with rubbery orange on the wall, and pipe cleaners on the conical roof. Investigate what is in the structure. On the right of the birdhouse gazebo, near the far edge, are two cylinders with raised lids, one covered with rough gritty green and the other with hard wavy line brown. On the left on each side of the large structure are two small triangular prisms of wood with dashed line purple on the ends and fine gritty grey on the other sides. Some of the unfinished wood surfaces are very smooth, like white Tactile Colour. The whole piece has a cheerful and eclectic sense, like a toy playground or amusement park.

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