By Jennifer Sadler

All people have the ability to create.  Whether it’s art-making as a hobby, profession, or simply for exploration, art can offer a platform for personal expression and a way of engaging with the world that surrounds us.  For artists with disabilities, the creative process can open doors that may not have seemed possible before.  Art also can be a captivating means of challenging and transforming assumptions about disabilities and can serve as a powerful tool for advocacy.

Several organizations in Columbus are forging new paths to creativity for people with disabilities. Each organization is unique in their focus and the range of services and tools they offer, but all are dedicated to making the arts accessible to people of all ages and all disabilities.  By providing a safe and supportive environment, organizations such as Open Door Studio, Goodwill Art Studio & Gallery and VSA Ohio are inspiring individuals to reach beyond their limitations to enjoy the experience of a deeper engagement with the artistic process.

The spirit of openness and collaboration among these organizations has created new and exciting opportunities for artists to share their work, including the upcoming show, Outside / In, opening on August 11 and on view through September 21 at Open Door Studio.  Outside / In will feature work from several progressive accessible art studios throughout Ohio including Open Door Art Studio, Rendville Art Works, Passion Works Studio, Visionaries and Voices, Thundersky Gallery, Inc., Goodwill Art Studio of Columbus, Blue Shoe Arts and Our Town Studios, Inc.  With this exhibition, these organizations hope not only to build partnerships, but more important, allow the beauty, depth and humor of the work to provoke fresh perspectives and foster new regard for the talent of artists with disabilities.

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ColumbusArts.com Profile: KAT MARIE MOYA

By Kez Hall

As the most comprehensive online events guide and resource for arts and culture in central Ohio, ColumbusArts.com offers a virtual guide through the Columbus art world with a searchable database of events, concerts, performances and more. ColumbusArts.com is an engaging place for artists and arts organizations to share what they do, with an average of 30,000 users per month. The ColumbusArts.com Artist Directory allows visual, performing and literary artists to create a profile and portfolio to showcase their work—for free—and enables art enthusiasts to easily search for and connect with them. Our monthly ColumbusArts.com artist profile series features interviews with a few of the many talented individuals who make up central Ohio’s thriving creative community. Local artist, Kat Marie Moya, of Columbus Ohio, is a self taught highly motivated go getter. Undoubtedly born to create, unmistakably creating to live, Kat shares her experiences and explores the experiences of others through her artwork.

"I'd been thinking about the customization of superstitions and theories that govern our lives and individual philosophies. There were 10 pieces total [in the Superstition Series 2006-2007], and not a single one of them was a superstition of my own. Each piece of the series took me through research that ultimately produced work that ended up connecting to people that recognized themselves in the piece and what it was about. The synchronistic occurrences that came out of that series drove me to create more work that would give air to creative conquest. Most recently I have been wrapping up a small series of contemplative works based on the marriage of simple words, titles or phrases and materials that change the direction one would interpret those words."

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