CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – (CLARKSVILLENOW) The Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Bettencourt Originals as a new member during a ribbon cutting Monday. The business is owned by artist Tracy Bettencourt who has been blind for more than twelve years.
Along with being a talented artist, Bettencourt is also an advocate for persons with disabilities and a motivational speaker. She began to lose her eyesight in her early 30’s from an eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Although the disease has left her blind, the hardships she experienced have not prevented her from living her life to the best of her abilities. Art is a skill she found later in life and she says she enjoys passing it forward whenever possible.
Bettencourt says within the past five years she has been painting using her hands and uses assistive technology on her IPhone and IPad to identify colors. The paints she uses are textured acrylic and forms of puffy paint.
“My hands are my eyes and the puffy paint allows me to convey my thoughts and feelings onto canvas using tactile lines. Every day I wake and live in darkness yet with my newfound skill of painting, I am able to share my unique perception of the world around me as well as conveying the unseen beauty of life,” says Bettencourt.
Bettencourt adds that she puts her heart, soul and insight into every piece of her artwork. Many of Bettencourt’s paintings are on display throughout the month of June at Vivid Gallery Tanyalyn, 1860 Wilma Rudolph Blvd.
To learn more about the work of artist Tracy Bettencourt visit her facebook page, Bettencourt Originals by Artist Trace Bettencourt, email tbettencourt2014@gmail.com, or call 931-257-6938.