AN: So I was inspired to write this when I heard that there are actually some painters who are blind. I looked them up, and their paintings are some of the most vibrantly colored, beautiful paintings I've ever seen. I encourage you all to go look it up, it really is amazing.
Katherine sighed irritably as she looked around the room. When her editor had called her into his office earlier that morning, she'd had a good feeling, she thought that he might finally be giving her a big story. But no, he had told her that he wanted her to cover an art gallery. A very prestigious art gallery, granted, but that didn't make much of a difference to Katherine. She'd argued that she didn't know anything about art, but he'd told her that she should just interview the artists themselves rather than write about their work. She thought that seemed slightly redundant, but here she was anyway.
She'd already interviewed a man who created a painting using solely animal blood, and a woman who created abstract art, and when asked about it, had explained to Katherine every traumatic event she'd experienced that inspired her work. She knew that artists were known for being deep thinkers, but she hadn't expected them to be quite this disturbing. So, she promised herself that she'd only interview one more person to make sure she'd have enough material for her article, and then she'd allow herself to leave. She wandered around, looking for the most normal looking work (and people) when a particular painting caught her eye. She made her way over to it.
"Oh, it's beautiful." She whispered quietly. It was a painting of some plains, the kind you see in western movies, with mountains in the background along with a sunset. And it had the most beautiful use of color in a painting Katherine had ever seen.
"Yeah? Thanks." She turned to see a young man around her age looking at her. Katherine assumed he was the artist. There was something... off about his appearance, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Did you paint this?"
"I did." He nodded. "It's a painting of Santa Fe, out in New Mexico." Katherine nodded, flipping to a new page in her notebook. She looked back up at him, and suddenly she realized the difference in his appearance. He had striking blue eyes, but they weren't fully focused on anything, and it hit her that he must be blind. She was suddenly even more fascinated on his work than
"I'm a reporter for the sun, would you mind if I asked you some questions?" He nodded again.
"Yeah, shoot."
"So, first of all, what's your name?"
"I hope the questions aren't all this easy." He grinned. "Jack Kelly." She quickly jotted that down, pausing before asking her next question. She had about a million of them, but she didn't have any experience interviewing people with disabilities, and she didn't want to be rude.
"So, what... what inspired you to paint this?"
"You don't gotta avoid it, you know."
"I don't - "
"Yeah, you do. I'm blind, I know you want to ask me about it."
"I... are you sure?"
"I'm sure, I don't mind, really." Katherine hesitated, still slightly uncomfortable with the topic, but it would make the article much better, and he really didn't seem to be offended.
"Alright. So, were you born blind, or did something cause it?"
"When I was a kid, around... twelve years old, maybe, I got a bad head injury, I lost my sight then." She began writing then, finding herself wanting to know more about him, which she knew meant that other people would be interested too. She was about to ask how he'd gotten the head injury, but she was worried it was a sensitive subject, so she moved on.
