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Gina M Cashbaugh Toth
Gina M Cashbaugh Toth's Artwork
Artist Statement
Hello everyone! It’s great to meet you. It has been a long journey. I have faced much adversity in my life, but the Lord has brought me through the trials and trials and tribulations of life. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Psalms 18:2.
I was blind, but now I see through his amazing grace. I am visually challenged and considered to be legally blind, but praise the Lord I am no longer spiritually blind. I have been severely visually challenged since birth. I have a hereditary condition known as congenital cataracts. I also have nystagmus, which is involuntary eye movement and strabismus, which is a lazy eye. This condition goes back for several generations. However due to these visual challenges I have experienced the benefits of music and visual arts. Many of my struggles have stemmed from this so called affliction. But, the Lord has opened my eyes and my heart. He has allowed me to see things differently and in a unique manner. I do not consider myself to be disabled, but very able. Through the grace and gifts of God I can maximize my abilities.
Throughout my life I have instinctively used the arts in a therapeutic manner to address my own specific special needs and issues regarding my visual challenges. This experience enabled me to help other visually challenged and disabled individuals to address their special needs through the arts. My family and I developed several youth programs utilizing the arts to address special needs due to visual and other challenges. Past work with blind and visually challenged individuals in the arts has demonstrated a correlation between increased self - esteem, improved social skills, and the development of more appropriate coping mechanisms. Therefore I have developed arts therapy interventions to address my specific special needs related to the aforementioned issues. I was able to create these interventions for my thesis project in graduate school. I hope that these interventions will later be implemented with other blind and visually challenged individuals.
“If I were given the opportunity to have normal vision I think I would gracefully decline. It might be nice for awhile. But I fear that by changing the way that I see would indeed change me.”
Contact info
Gina M Cashbaugh Toth
http://www.primacreativadzignsbygina.com/
gsgzygems@yahoo.com
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