5th Fractured Vision Art Exhibition — success

What a fantastic start we had to the art exhibition. Within 2 hours we had taken nearly £500. This will go a long way to help those losing their vision. We donated an Apple Watch, an Apple iPhone and Guide software for a computer. The recipients were so grateful. They all promised to do as much as they can to help raise funds for The Eye Fund.

The evening was made extra special with a set from Vocal Infinity. Thank you very much ladies. You were tremendous.

The exhibition, lasting a week, raised over £1400 for The Eye Fund. Thanks to all who made this possible.

5th Fractured Vision Art Exhibition

The 5th Fractured Vision Art Exhibition, featuring graphics by Simon Sherry, will be held in the Visitors Center, Birkenhead Park from Monday, 8th May to Sunday, 14th May. The doors will be open from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily. Admission is free.

The exhibition will be officially opened on Sunday, 7th May, by The Eye Fund Patron, Mike McCartney.

On sale will be copies of Simon’s unique graphics, either framed or just mounted. Also, using the same graphics, there will be on sale, jewellery, greetings cards, silk scarves etc.

Successful Exhibition

The 4th “Fractured Vision” Exhibition was a great success.

Opened by Patron Mike McCartney, the exhibition lasted the whole week in the Visitors Centre, Birkenhead Park. On display and for sale were copies of Simon’s work in the form of framed pictures, jewellery, greeting cards, silk scarves, cushions, etc.

The total funds raised was over £1100.

Thanks to all who bought items and helped in any way.

4th Fractured Vision Art Exhibition

The 4th Fractured Vision Art Exhibition, featuring graphics by Simon Sherry, will be held in the Visitors Center, Birkenhead Park from Monday, 13th April to Sunday, 19th April. The doors will be open from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily. Admission is free.

The exhibition will be officially opened on Sunday, 12th April by The Eye Fund Patron, Mike McCartney.

On sale will be copies of Simon’s unique graphics, either framed or just mounted. Also, using the same graphics, there will be on sale, jewellery, greetings cards, silk scarves etc.

Notes from Fractured Vision v3.0

The third exhibition of Simon’s fantastic art work was held in The Gallery in Birkenhead Park, April 29th to 6th May. It was opened by The Eye Fund patron, Mike McCartney.

Invited guests enjoyed a preview of the exhibition. The Wirral Potters and members of The Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted craft group were inspired by Simon’s designs to create some amazing pieces.

Simon’s brother, Phil, proposed a toast to him with champagne kindly donated by Paul McCartney.

The exhibition ran for nine days and raised £1500 for the charity.

WONDERFUL!

Carol Sherry on BBC Radio Merseyside

Carol was recently interviewed by Sean Styles on BBC Radio Merseyside. They talked about Simon, the jewellery that Paul makes, and the new exhibition in Birkenhead Park.

In case you missed it, we’ve got two versions of the clip available for you, depending on how much bandwidth you have to burn.

Video version with captions

Audio version

The video has open captions plus a closed caption file, but if you’re after a regular transcription of the audio, here you go.


Now, the Eye Fund is a local charity which aims to provide much needed support to people who are losing their sight due to degenerative diseases.

Now, it was set up by Carol and Paul Sherry, whose son, Simon, started to lose his sight in his thirties.

Now, Simon sadly died in 2005, but an exhibition of some of his artwork has gone on display today over in Birkenhead Park.

Now, I went over to meet Carol and she told me more about how the Eye Fund got started in the first place.

It was started from here, from home, after we lost our son, Simon, in 2005.

And we thought we can either sit and cry, or we can do something positive. So, we chose a positive option.

And because Simon was a graphic designer, then we decided to use his designs and raise some money and help other people who were losing their vision.

So, Simon’s sight deteriorated over the years. He was a relatively young man.

He was, he was 38 when he died. Yes. And he lost one eye when he was 8 years old, in an accident.

And then, when he was about, say, 30, I think… his other eye started giving him trouble.

And when he eventually went to the hospital, he had a retinal disorder; degenerative retinal disorder.

And he was going to lose his vision.

My word. Was that as a result of him losing the eye, originally?

They don’t know. They say it could have been possible, but they weren’t sure.

Now, he made some—I’m going to use the word stunning, because they are absolutely stunning—designs which are going to go on display.

Are they for sale?

They are. They’re going to go in the exhibition in Birkenhead Park next week.

So hopefully all the money we raise from that will go into the Eye Fund.

I mean, they are really outstanding and they’re very colourful; they’re based loosely round the eye, aren’t they?

There’s an eye on every one of them.

Well, I think that was the whole reason for it.

I think it was Simon’s way of working it out of his system, because he couldn’t get his head around the fact that he wasn’t going to have any sight.

And he was a very independent, active young man. He was like… mountaineering and walking in the hills, always on his own; lived in Devon.

Right.

And he just couldn’t face the future.

So this… he created these designs—they’re computer generated designs are they?

They are, yes. He was a computer… graphic designer, right, yeah.

So did you know he was making these at the time?

We knew he’d done a few. And then after he died, and Paul and his brothers went to sort his little house out in Devon, they found hundreds in his computer.

What a great idea to use them in this way, to keep his memory alive, of course, and to raise money for the funds.

Well, he’s here with us all the time.

I’m sure he is.

Yes, he is.

So now you’re not only just showing Simon’s graphics, you’ve also made some jewellery using the graphics in the pictures, haven’t you?

We have. We started out with a friend making them for us and then when she was unable to carry on, then ever resourceful, Paul

— nice —

He now does them with me being a very minor assistant.

You’re very modest Carol, I’m sure you put more input into the jewellery.

Don’t you believe it.

These are excellent aren’t they.

Paul frames the pictures and he makes the cards.

We sell cards as well and all I do is put them in the envelopes and put the price on them and stuff like that.

Paul does the rest.

Is this the first time you’ve done this one?

No, third time. Third time? Yeah.

What we’re doing as well this time and we’ve done before is we’ve asked somebody else to come in to our exhibition with us to provide a different aspect.

So this time we’re having the pottery from a local group called Wirral Potters and they’re all using one of Simon’s designs and they’re creating their pottery from those.

So it’ll give Simon’s talent a new sort of perspective. Really? Isn’t that great?

Yeah, it’s fabulous.

And if you come you’ll be able to see Paul and I say hello because we’ll be there every day.

It’s going to be opened by Mike McCartney?

It is, yes.

Mike’s coming on Sunday to open it.

It’s a private opening with invitations only.

Do you get a lot of people coming along to speak to you about someone who might be worried about themselves or a family member of themselves.

A lot, yeah, you find an awful lot of people who have eye problems and unfortunately we can’t answer them, but they think that because we’re doing this and our son was sort of struck by the same affliction that we can say what’s going to happen to theirs, but we’re always a sympathetic ear and we like to sort of have a little chat.

What we like to do, as well as we like to provide help for individuals because when Simon was alive and losing his sight he had Paul McCartney to help him.

And Paul was very generous with Simon.

He used to send his car to take him to the hospital and he sent him on the trip around the world, bought him his computer and we like to do that — obviously not on such a big scale — for other people who haven’t got a Paul.

And this time we’re presenting an iPad to a little fellow called Jack who’s got the same sort of problems as Simon.

When I was talking to his mum, she’s going through exactly the same things that we went through but her boy is only eleven years old and so she and I have said, you just talk to me anytime because we can share the same feelings.

I’m sure there must be a great inspiration from speaking to the likes of yourself, Carol.

Well, it’s good to share, isn’t it? Because she said nobody understands… and they don’t, because the boys don’t want to speak to their mum, because they don’t want to worry us.

It’s a little lonely life for them sometimes.

This little boy doesn’t want anybody to know that is sight bad, so he won’t have a stick and Simon wouldn’t have a stick.

So we’re able to give Jack an iPad with all sorts of adaptions so that it will help him in school because he was falling behind a bit with his lessons.

And his teacher can have the keyboard at the back of the class and she can actually help him on the keyboard while he’s working, so it’s fine.

So have you got a goal in mind with the Eye Fund as far as money’s concerned, or are you just going to carry on and on?

We’re going to carry on forever as long as we can.

Our main aim was to provide counseling for people like Simon, because when they told him there was no cure and no treatment for his condition, they just virtually said, “go and see the RNIB”.

So what we wanted to do was to provide help for people like him.

So we’ve given money to the Royal … well, St. Paul’s in the Royal, and the Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted.

And we have two counsellors now, two Eye Fund counsellors who can help people like Simon who were diagnosed with failing vision.

So we can come along to Birkenhead Park?

Yeah.

Between the 29th of April and the 6th of May.

Yes, any day between 10 a.m.

And 4 p.m.

Here’s to the future, Carol.

Thank you very, very much.

Yes, here is to the future. And there you go.

It’s Carol, and Paul Sherry was there, the husband as well, and he’s very busy making jewellery, making rings, key rings, you name it.

Simon’s designs are there to be had.

They’re over there at Birkenhead Park today.

Some fantastic prints and I mean, they’re absolutely stunning.

The wonderful, wonderful work.

If that’s your thing and you fancy going over to have a look today, Birkenhead Park until Monday the 6th of May, between 10 and 4.

So, if you’re out and about today, pop over and have a look.

Well worth it.

Fractured Vision Exhibition III

The third exhibition of Simon’s work takes place in the Gallery, Birkenhead Park April 29th to May 5th.

The opening on 28th April by Mike McCartney is by invitation only.

The exhibition, entitled “Fractured Vision II”, will feature old and new designs by Simon, work from Wirral Potters, and contributions from the members of the craft group at Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted.

Copies of Simon’s work and jewellery featuring those designs will be on sale thoughout the week as well as some of the pottery.

Emily: the artist.
Emily: the artist.
Emily: the art.
Emily: the art.

The attached pictures are from a previous exhibition which featured work from children from the local primary school.

Fractured Vision feedback

The Eye Fund “Fractured Vision” exhibition was a huge success.

Pieces of art work were shown by the Fine Arts BA Course at Wirral Metropolitan College. Members of Ashville Lodge, home of The Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted, Simon’s sister, Helen, and Jacob’s friend, Tim. The whole reason for the exhibition was Simon. 12 of his newly chosen designs were also shown.

At the champagne opening, performed by Mike McCartney, the Eye Fund Patron, Carol and Paul presented a cheque for £9000 to Dr. Deborah Broadbent and Jayne Bradley from St Paul’s Eye Hospital, Liverpool, to start a brand new counselling service.

A computer with Dolphin software, which can be used by blind and partially sighted people was also presented to Sharon Bentley funded by The Eye Fund. Sharon is losing her sight and this computer will enable her to carry on with her studies.

The LFC signed shield was won by John Sedgewick, who immediately gave it to Neil from the Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted (he is an avid Liverpool fanatic).

The Sherry family were present in force and the evening closed with a toast to Simon by Phil.

The week long exhibition raised £1000. Lots more help for people like Simon!!!

This is what it’s all about.

Carol & Paul Sherry

Press Release

Fractured Vision

Fractured Vision is an exhibition from registered charity The Eye Fund, featuring a newly released range of graphic designs from Simon Sherry, whose premature passing at just 39 years of age gave rise to this effective and supportive charity.

Simon’s designs are complemented by an incredible range of work from degree students at Wirral Met College, their lecturers (some of whom are professional artists in their own right), as well as volunteers and patrons of Ashville Lodge amongst others.

When is it?

From 22nd to 28th November 2010 between 10:00am to 4:00pm. The official opening is at 4-6pm on Monday November 22nd, by invitation only. Admission after that point will be free.

Where is it?

To be held at The Gallery, Birkenhead Park, Wirral, CH41 4HY.

Who is involved?

Fractured Vision will be opened by Mike McCartney, Patron of The Eye Fund and ambassador for the Wirral.

Why is this happening?

The primary reason for the exhibition is to raise awareness of The Eye Fund and the work that they do. Money raised by the charity pays for counselling and practical help to people who are losing their vision and for whom there can be no further treatment. Currently support is available for patients of Arrowe Park Eye Clinic, including those frequenting Ashville Lodge on the Wirral, and St. Paul’s Eye Hospital in Liverpool.

The exhibition will celebrate the incredible £50,000 raised in just three years by this dedicated group!

Presentations will be made of £9000 to St. Paul’s Eye Hospital and of a specially prepared voice activated computer for a local lady with visual impairment.

Contact

Contact Paul or Carol Sherry for further information on pj.sherry@gmail.com or 0151 670 1679.

Background

Simon Sherry died at the age of 39 from symptoms surrounding Retinal Cone Dystrophy, a condition in which his vision was becoming more and more fractured, hence the exhibition title: “Fractured Vision”. As a graphic designer, Simon expressed his increasing frustrations through his abstract designs, many of which use the eye as a starting point. It is these designs that Trustees of The Eye Fund are using to turn their loss into something extremely productive.

The Eye Fund began their fundraising mission with the production of a 2008 calendar featuring twelve of Simon’s most startling images. They were very fortunate to secure the support of Sir Paul McCartney, who wrote:

“This calendar celebrates the life of my second cousin Simon. He was an extremely talented guy as this calendar proves and his talents extend beyond art to music, where he was an accomplished bassist and keyboardist. He is sorely missed by all of us who knew and loved him but I for one will never forget his smiling face and all of us in the family will cherish his memory forever.”

Sales from this calendar alone helped to realise £2,500 and formed a very solid foundation for the charity’s future work.

Trustees of The Eye Fund are determined that they carefully monitor exactly how their donations are spent and so will only work with organisations that permit their donations to be specifically ring fenced for this purpose. This way, they, and you, can be sure that your donation is wisely spent. Whilst their primary purpose is to fund counselling, they are always open to requests from individuals who may require a specific tool or gadget to help make their day–to–day life as trouble free as possible. Trustees available at the exhibition will be glad to talk more about examples that they have recently purchased.

Please do contact Carol or Paul in advance if you require any further information, or of course speak with any of the Trustees present at the launch of Fractured Vision.