Jamie Cracknell, 33, of Nobby’s Beach usually creates more than twelve individualised drawings for family and friends as Christmas gifts. This year he has decided to give everyone the same calendar but the gift will still contain his artwork.
“I am so chuffed to have my picture included in the 2014 Vision Australia calendar. The standard of artwork is amazing. Sometimes you do a double-take and have to check that all the artists are actually blind or vision impaired.”
Jamie, who has bilateral keratoconus, started to doodle in between speaking with clients at a call centre.
“I’ve only been doing the pictures for the last couple of years and never really had the patience to finish them. It took me about two months to finish the pen sketch of Cecil the Seehorse which has been included in the calendar. I used to only use blue and red pen and the work was formed by lots of small dots. Now I have over 40 pen colours and am doing more detailed work and blending colours more.”
Jamie is self-taught and decided to enter the calendar competition when it was suggested to him by a Vision Australia staff member.
“I live in the Seahorse Apartments so I guess that is where the idea came. Originally I called my entry ‘Cecil the I don’t seahorse’. I hadn’t actually given the work a name until it was being photographed for entry into the calendar selection competition.”
“I am getting more involved with my art than I used to. I now have a collection of over 50 artworks. It is fantastic to get my work published in a calendar which is available across Australia.”
Jamie’s creative art and the work of 11 other artists, who are blind or have low vision, will be showcased in the 2014 Vision Australia calendar.
Jamie Cracknell Media Release