Clarke Reynolds, 44, turns Braille into works of art – and is an ambassador for Fight for Sight. A passion for art has helped Clarke adjust to being severely vision impaired and build resilience. Clarke is also publishing a children's book about the adventures of Mr Dot.
His passion for art began at age six, says Clarke. "It's all about following that dream, no matter what the hurdles thrown in my way have been."
The artist first received a diagnosis of vision loss in the eighties and reflects that, at the time, people didn't talk about vision loss. "Back in the eighties, it [vision loss] wasn't talked about, so I didn't realise that I was vision impaired. I was in school and sat at the back of the class because I was a 'health hazard' to other children. So, I played with Play-Doh, and I played with blocks.
A diagnosis of vision loss
Clarke's early memories are of regular hospital visits. "I still remember my doctor's name, Dr Tudor," he says. "I remember going up to the hospital every four weeks 'cos my eyes were deteriorating. I had the eye patches. I had the eye drops. When you've got the patch on, they always put the drops in the bad eye and the patch over the good eye. The idea is that you strengthen the bad eye."
At six years old, Clarke learned that he'd lost the sight in one eye and wore glasses. "I grew up in a council flat, and we had nothing, so I couldn't afford designer glasses back then. It was the old NHS black-framed spectacles, which are now very fashionable, so I was ahead of my time! I lost my glasses all the time. I'd go swimming and leave them at the pool."
Clarke experienced 'Mickey-taking' at primary school but says it "made me who I am."
Discovering a passion for art
Clarke's primary school took him to an art gallery called Aspex in Portsmouth. It was a transformative visit. "I knew that going into that building, I wanted to be an artist. And it saved me. The ideas sketchbook was my best friend. I had some friends, but I was very much a loner. I had a 'get on with it' attitude, and you can't sell a sketchbook, and you sell can't ideas."
He drew comic books and was "fascinated" by drawing maps. A turning point was when he drew a picture of Charles Dickens at school following a visit to the writer's birthplace.
"I'd drawn it, and the headmaster loved it so much that he framed it and put it in his office. That was the moment that, as a child, I thought, 'I've made it now!' And then at school, we'd have the Christmas card and Easter competitions, and I'd win them all! The gratification of winning them was amazing because I didn't have that at home."
Dotty about art: early seeds of Clarke's artistic style
From there, he discovered a passion for the art form Pointillism, where dots are laid over dots.
"From an early age, 7 or 8, I loved the art form Pointillism. The idea of dots laid upon dots. It's ironic when you see the other art I do now, but it makes sense because that's how I see the world. My world is like pixelation. There is so much going on with a thousand dots. When I went on an art trip, I was looking at an art piece with my friend and two old people were next to us. I turned around and said to them, 'That's Pointillism, that is', and they said: 'How does a young kid know all about that?'"
"My favourite art piece is called the Yellow Cow by Franz Marc. When you're a child, and you're told, 'draw a cow', you draw a cow that's black with white splotches or white with black splotches, a typical Friesian cow. So, imagine opening a book and seeing a bright yellow cow with purple splotches! It blew my mind!"
Teachers encouraged Clarke in his passion for art, including his design technology teacher and a secondary school teacher who allowed him to take part in adult art classes in the evening. "I was about 12 years old then. He knew there was something in me. And it was a way of escaping, as I didn't want to be at home; I wanted to be somewhere else."
Further education: becoming a professional artist
Clarke left school at age 14 due to issues with his kidneys. "When I was about 13 years old, I got the bull's-eye rash all over my body, and it literally knocked me for six, and I was sent to the doctor, and then to the hospital, it turned out the be Lyme Disease. I got one GCSE - an A in art.
"But I was a fighter, and after I got through that, and it took me a couple of years, I went back into higher education at 18 and did a GNVQ. It was what was known then as a 'new deal scheme'. It was through the job centre, so if you were sick and you got back into work, they would pay you to do a course. So I went back to college, and I did my course and then every evening for a couple of hours I would help tidy up, and that's how I got paid through the job centre."
At age 19, Clarke earned a diploma in art design and then applied to a university. "So, I'd got almost no GCSEs and got into Portsmouth University. I started a fine art course and did my diploma at the same time, too."
Deteriorating vision and a career in model making
During a career switch, Clarke noticed a significant deterioration in his vision. "I loved my movies, and someone said to me, you could do a degree in model making, and I thought ', how interesting, I can get a skill base behind me and do all the creative stuff later."
He changed his degree to a degree in model making in Rochester. "I think that was when it hit me that my eyesight was a problem.
"As a model maker, I didn't know what a straight line looked like; everything must be so accurate, and I was so used to being free, and that was what the art was about. Why would I know what a straight line looks like? Because I never had 20/20 vision, I had to rely on instruments and what was around me."
"I graduated in 2006, just as the economy went to pot. And so basically, for 10 years, I stacked shelves in Tesco and at The Range, and finally, I got a job using my degree and became a dental model maker. It's funny, you know, when you are growing up, you might say I'm going to be an astronaut or an architect. You don't say, I'm going to be a dental model maker. But it was fascinating. I loved it."
However, eight months into the role, Clarke started catching the tips of his fingers on the sander. "I thought, what is going on? And I noticed my eyes went. I had a dark shadow in the good eye, and I thought maybe I needed stronger glasses because it was fine and detailed work."
A loss of vision and a change of circumstances
A high street optician referred Clarke to a hospital where ophthalmologists examined him. "Four ophthalmologists looked at my eyes, and they sat me down and said, 'Mr Reynolds, do you drive?' and I said 'yes,' and they said: 'Hand your licence over, you're going blind.'"
Clarke was 32.
"Deep down in my head, I thought I would lose sight, but not in my 30s. I thought it would be more in my 50s and 60s."
At that time, Clarke lost his home. "We were made homeless with a no-fault eviction, as the landlord sold the property. I had to give up my job because you needed accuracy for the work, and my daughter had mobility issues."
He moved in with his Mum, and his daughter received a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. "I was having my white cane training at the time, which I loved. It was great. My daughter was then diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy, so it wasn't really about the sight loss then. It was a case of 'what do I do? How do I live my life? How do I support my family?'"
It was a case of what do I do? How do I live my life? How do I support my family?"
Sporting chances: a determination to succeed
Clarke wanted to meet others who were vision impaired, so he joined a VI sports group. "I played cricket! And it was great ‘cos we were all in the same boat, and I loved it. I played for a team in Hampshire and was good, so they said to come along to trials for Sussex who play in the premiership. So, I played for the Sussex Sharks, and we won the 2020 finals. It was amazing!"
"And at that time, we found a property to rent, and we're in it now, but it's not accessible because, as a blind dad, I carry my daughter down the stairs, which is not great, but I'm still fighting that. So again, there is loads of stuff in my life that I think more about than my sight loss."
Sport, says Clarke, helped to get him back on his feet. Five years ago, he came across Braille and rekindled his artistic career. "As soon as I played around with those dots, I was like, why is it not an art form?! Just like a typographer uses letters, why can't this be an art form? And that changed my life. I would never have discovered Braille unless I had gotten that diagnosis, so I also look at it as a blessing. I love being blind."
"People think I'm crazy half the time because I love who I am. And then the Braille just took off and you make your own luck as an artist. I had an exhibition at Aspex, the gallery that first inspired me, and now I am a Trustee at Aspex, so I've come full circle, which is great!"
"The best thing about it, what the art has given me, it's given me a purpose. But I'm more than an artist now, and I would never have thought I would advocate for the visually impaired community, especially the youngsters, and that's where the Mr Dot character has come from."
The best thing about it, what the art has given me, it's given me a purpose.
Inspiring others and doing charitable work
Mr Dot is Clarke's alter-ego as "the Braille artist". He wears a snazzy Braille-inspired suit and visits schools dressed as Mr Dot, inspiring the next generation of VI children to become creatives and breaking down the stigma attached to sight loss.
Mr Dot has inspired over 15,000 children in the last couple of years.
"It's mainstream schools which might have VI students, but even if they don't have VI students, Mr Dot goes into their schools, does projects around Braille, because I believe Braille should be part of the national curriculum because it transcends all the subjects: maths, English, science history, art. It's perfect, its great!"
In 2021, Clarke became involved with Vision Foundation – now Fight for Sight, following the merger of Vision Foundation and Fight for Sight. "The charity has been part of my journey. You make your own luck as an artist, and there was a call out for their centenary to do some artwork for their tables for their charity auction at that time. I had an exhibition at The Base in Newbury called 'Decoding Braille, Decoding Me' with my colour-coded Braille, and I invited them along, and they loved it. And I said I'll do some table pieces and a unique piece to be sold at your auction, and I raised over £3,000 for charity at that gala. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there as I was in America doing a project."
A gallery director at the gala saw Clarke's work and contacted him. "Four months later, I had my first solo show in London and got onto Sky News."
We've been beside him each step, says Clarke, especially Olivia McDonald, our partnerships officer. "Every time I've done something, Olivia has been amazing. In any project I did at Aspex or in London, such as a project for Ask Italian, I did their braille window for their Christmas display. Olivia came down, and she always wrote something and then she asked me to do the London Marathon. I said: 'Why not?' It had always been on my bucket list."
"And when they said to me in their new guise, if I'd be an ambassador for Fight for Sight, oh my god. If you'd told me ten years ago that I'd be an ambassador for Fight for Sight, that I'd be a patron for the charity VICTA, which works with children, that I would be nominated for the National Diversity Awards Positive Disability Role Model of the Year, I would have laughed at you! "
Artist turned author: inspiring the next generation
Clarke has now penned a children's book, which is coming out this year (2025). "My book is called 'Mr Dot and His Magical White Cane Adventures'. I want to inspire, especially the VI children, who can be anything they want to be! You don't have to be an artist. The idea is never to let society tell us what we can do. We can do anything we want."
"The idea is never to let society tell us what we can do. We can do anything we want."
"With Fight for Sight, it has been a symbiotic relationship. It has been amazing. I am ambitious. Why can't I read my book on CBeebies on World Sight Day as Mr Dot? Why can't I sit on Graham Norton's show as Mr Dot talking about my book?! I've been given a purpose and role, and I want to raise money for these charities, so get me on The Chase and Pointless Celebrities!"
Reflections: changes in perspective
Officially, Clarke has a diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). He describes how he sees as "like looking underwater. Every day is a new day. It's like being born again; every day I don't know how I'm going to see, and every day is so different."
"Every day is a new day. It's like being born again; every day I don't know how I'm going to see, and every day is so different."
Clarke has, he says, "created new memories of how I perceive colour, not the brightness of the colour, but the tonal value. It's not like black and white. I think that's a misperception of blindness. I know it's brown, I know its green, but tonally you could put two greens together, and it's very hard to distinguish. So, I just rely on when I'm doing my artwork, I've got my dots, I lay them out and I know that 12 o'clock is this one, one o'clock is this one and so I map it out that way."
Looking back, Clarke talks about how he turned a difficult start around. "The council estate in Portsmouth where I grew up is now a pile of rubble which is so interesting and the block of flats, even though it was a horrible place, was a stone's throw from Portsmouth University of Art.
"And I walked past that building every day to go to school. I always wanted to go to university, but obviously when you are in that kind of household those dreams and aspirations can never happen because of how you live. You think you can't go to university, you must go end up on the dole or in a dead end job, you know, that's how you're grown up to be in those kinds of places.
"And, unfortunately, my brother took the other path, which was the drugs and alcohol, and he passed away on a street corner seven years ago at the age of 35."
"But my daughter, was born on the same day as my brother, so there's a kind of serendipity in a way. And the great story for that one is that my partner is a little bit older than me, and she went to hospital ten years ago with some heart burn, this was in November, he gave her some tablets, and we got through Christmas. Around February time, the heartburn was still not going away, so we went to the doctors and three weeks later we had a baby! I'm not easily thrown. That's life, right?"
"But I worked so hard to get my degree. I was at university from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon. And then I'd come home, and because I didn't have rich parents, I worked at Pizza Hut from six in the evening until one in the morning. And that was my life for four years.
A positive attitude spawned a successful career
Clarke says that "Getting that diagnosis, to say 'oh you're losing your sight, you'll go blind', it could be the worst thing to happen. Obviously, it is because in your 30s you've got your whole life ahead of you. It's not like as a child, to be told that you are blind, then you can build up that narrative about how I am going to lead this life, what avenues am I going to go to, but at the age of 30, you have that road map in your head already of where you are going."
Instead, he has, challenged expectations and embraced 'the art of the possible'.
"In my industry it's hard to distinguish it as a career. We get knocked back with 'ah, isn't it nice you've got a hobby' because as a blind person all I can do is play with a lump of clay or weave a basket and that's 1950s attitudes. Why can't I exhibit alongside say Damien Hurst? It would be an amazing exhibition, a juxtaposed exhibition, his dots are my dots, it would be beautiful!"
"There's nothing different to me. I'm a blind, I'm a blind artist and I'm proud to be blind. I'm not disabled. Disabled means I can't do anything. No. I'm blind. I can do anything I want.'
"In a nutshell, I just want to blow away people's expectations of what sight loss means. Live your life to the best. I'm doing the best I can with the cards that have been dealt. I love it. I love where my life is leading, and I hope to inspire many thousands and to leave a legacy now. I didn't realise I could do that, but now I'm leaving a legacy which is important."
"The best thing about it, what the art has given me, it's given me a purpose."
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