LOS ANGELES—Colette Von is a preparator, a curator, and what she calls a “visually impaired artist with a vision.” Rather than allowing the disability to threaten her passion to paint, she uses it to uplift other underrepresented artists with the hope of making art accessible for all.
In her Echo Park apartment, she works from her subconscious and a limited vision acuity, using multiple controlled layers of condensed acrylic paint to slowly build depth. She applies the paint emphatically on canvas with chunky, screwed-up brushes, in which the bristles are stuck together, short and broken. Sometimes she may even ditch the brush, swapping it out for a large wooden stick or diving straight in with her hands.
“I love painting on raw, unstretched canvas and exploring its creases, texture, and hanging threads,” Von says. “I often use unbleached material because there is a compelling charm painting on new surfaces.”
Von was diagnosed with Cone-Rod Dystrophy, a rare degenerative and non-corrective retinal disease, in the first grade. She says she currently experiences blurred vision, light sensitivity, and an inability to fully see color. At night, she says her sight disappears almost entirely, limiting her to distinguish only certain contrasts and shadows.
Despite her vision loss, visual arts and music have always been a force in Von’s life. Originally from Colorado, Von moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to pursue a degree in music. But after the sudden death of a dear friend, Von says she struggled to get herself to perform again.
“She was my biggest fan. She was at every single one of my shows, always supporting me. I couldn’t perform after that, I’m just now barely starting to get back into it,” Von says. But she says the tragedy led her down a new creative avenue where she discovered her passion to paint in 2015.
Her earlier collections consist of various eyes, facial expressions, and disassociated bodies—all inspired by coming to terms with the changes blindness brought to her daily life. While creating these pieces, she said she had to overcome the tendency of trying to paint objects the way sighted people see, rather than how she views and understands them.
“If I’m sitting here trying to do a portrait of somebody, and I can’t fully see their face, I would try to paint them as what they look like to normal people. None of it worked, it didn’t look right, and there was a complete lack of cohesion,” Von says while sitting beside her recent six-by-seven foot painting, “Don’t Stop.”
Coming from a place of yearning and desire, ‘Don’t Stop’ depicts two women in an intimate embrace, utilizing acrylic and latex paint on raw canvas. “I’m bisexual, and because of Covid I haven’t seen any other women. It’s just something that I’ve really been missing and looking for, and that’s what I wanted to show in this piece,” Von says.
As she began developing her style and artistic voice, her constant search for approval started to disappear. She says letting go of fine details allowed her to move forward in a direction that was beneficial to her capabilities, granting her greater artistic freedom while improving her techniques.
“I think not having [this] need anymore has been really freeing. It doesn’t matter what other people think about my art, or even what I think about it. There was nothing on this page, and now there’s something, that’s something to be proud of,” Von says.
She adds, “I feel like those of us that are self-taught are always trying to prove ‘I’m a real artist.’ I have imposter syndrome all the time. I think early on in my career it felt good to have that recognition, but I don’t need a pat on the back like I used to.”
Without colors in her world, she primarily paints in greyscale to represent life as she experiences it. Her style leans towards abstraction, inspired by fluid feelings and interpretations of others’ energy and emotions.
“I have the style I have because of my disabilities. It’s very disconnected. I don’t try and go for realism at all, I can’t see that way, so why would I paint that way?” she says.
“She Flies” by Colette Von is a 7.5-by-6 foot acrylic painting on raw canvas. It was inspired by the #metoo movement and the silence, isolation, and vulnerability victims faced.
While teaching herself how to paint, Von also developed a keen understanding of art handling and installation.
She went from working at a quaint cafe inside One One Six Two, an art gallery once located in Echo Park, to becoming the exhibition director and curator. Here, she personally installed, uninstalled, and managed shipping for more than 40 exhibitions, and hosted 25 pop-ups around the area.
“I was installing everything, I was booking everything, posting everything. It quickly took over my life,” Von says. Despite her knack for curation, she says she often felt overwhelmed and overworked. “My live-work balance was completely off, and because of that, I was super depressed and making really sad, depressing art.”
In 2018, Von made the tough call to close 1162’s doors due to lack of staff and financial help. A year later she opened her own art gallery, Lift Art Up, which doubles as an installation business. She says she wouldn’t be where she is today without the help of her husband, Kyle Stallock, who is often responsible for getting Von to and from work.
LA UP is an alternative to the traditional gallery experience, presenting works in boutiques, tasting rooms, and outdoor venues throughout Los Angeles. Since its launch, LA UP has hosted themed figure drawing, group paint nights, and sip and sculpt classes to encourage guests to engage with art in new ways. Von says she hopes to bring instructional workshops back next year, once pandemic restrictions ease.
LA UP is also committed to presenting works by underrepresented artists in the industry.
“A lot of people, past a certain age, start getting forgotten about unless they’re huge artists. Everyone’s trying to find the young hot artists, the new person, and it leaves huge gaps in terms of representation for age. It’s really not talked about enough and I try to be mindful of this in my work [as a curator],” she says.
Ten percent of Von’s exhibition sales go to local nonprofits and social organizations such as RAINN, the Downtown Women’s Center, and the LA LGBT Youth Center.
The third-annual exhibition of Sexposed was held at Pskaufman, an iconic shoe store that occupies the basement of an old hotel tucked away in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. 12 LA-based artists had their works on display.
‘Mao Handles His Junk’ by shoe designer and exhibition host, Paul Kaufman.
Over 18 months of museum closures, virtual exhibitions, and searching for inspiration in isolation, Von decided it was time to bring back Sexposed, an annual exhibition that features local queer and female artists whose work plays with sexual taboos, fetish-freedom, and harmful societal dispositions surrounding abuse, harassment, and inequality.
“Being with art physically is so powerful. We were all yearning for that space, and digital exhibits just weren’t the same,” Von says.
The show, held in Downtown LA, launched for Gay Pride on June 25 and was open until Sept. 20. Artists and guests were gifted entry to the underground, hidden gallery located within the Pskaufman footwear boutique.
“It’s pretty amazing to be in 2021 and get to put together and curate a show just for the purpose of expression and various forms of sexuality,” says Brian Reynolds, a collage and mixed-media artist based in Los Osos whose work draws on sadism and masochism, or “S&M,” elements.
Ori Paul Levi, a visual artist, photographer, and creative director, has been a part of and helped Von curate Sexposed since its debut in 2018.
“Colette is such an incredible curator and she has such an amazing eye, she really knows what she is doing. I love how raw Colette’s work is—the color, the technique, and despite her disability, she is still able to create incredible color palettes and shapes. I find it really, really, inspiring,” Levi says
Today, Von continues to paint and looks to the future. She is currently working on her next curation for Monopole Wine in Pasadena.
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