TikTok and Washougal’s Blind Lumberjack and Whimsical Painter | 14.-20. July 2021

Anni Furniss heard shuffling steps. When she looked up from the piano she was basking with thick brushstrokes for a fundraiser, she saw John’s hand accidentally rest on the wet paint. That first encounter sparked a conversation that would later turn into a 9-year relationship and marriage.

Anni and John Furniss met at the Emil Fries School of Piano Technology for the Blind in Vancouver, Washington. Anni was teaching art to teenagers from a nearby animal shelter in one of the school’s classrooms, and John was a student learning how to fix pianos.

They quickly bonded over a shared passion for making art. “I described most of my pictures to him,” said Anni. “At the beginning, when we were together for the first time, it was really difficult for me that he couldn’t see her.” Since then Anni has found the language to describe her art to her partner.

Anni paints ethereal scenes with earthy acrylic colors. “I usually choose a cool color palette, and it’s kind of surreal and whimsical, like colors that bring a lot of emotion,” said Anni. “And they are, I would say, peaceful and calming.”

John uses a chainsaw and lathe to make unique pieces of wood, even though he’s completely blind. At the age of 16, John survived a self-inflicted shot suicide attempt that resulted in total blindness.

While piano repair was the kind of hands-on job John wanted and that worked well with his engineering spirit, it lacked creativity and a steady income. Anni encouraged him to quit his job and focus entirely on woodworking, a skill he learned in his early twenties at a school for the blind in Salt Lake City. His partially blind woodworking teacher taught him the basics and provided the expensive machines and tools he needed.

“I thought, ‘Crazy bunch of blind people working with woodworking tools?'” John said. “I’ve always been an adventurous person and always looked up to craftsmen. … When I entered this wood shop, my life changed forever. “

Today John has developed his skills in making royal bowls, canisters, lamps, honey pots and tables. Various tones of wood, including black walnut, sapele, and pine, cut through its pieces, creating complex designs and patterns. Each piece is unique.

“I have a very three-dimensional mind and can very accurately translate what I feel into a visual image in my mind and vice versa,” said John. “I like to call it a computer design program in my head. … When I really plan a piece, I have seen the finished product before the wood is even processed. “

The couple support each other at work. John suggests scenes for Anni to paint, including a finished work that shows two whales with hot air balloons on their belly, floating over a mirrored ocean landscape. Anni sometimes models and paints clay knobs that are later attached to John’s woodwork. Anni also helps John sort wood by color and type, all from the shared workshop in Washougal, Washington.

Living with blindness

Life for John and his relationship with blindness wasn’t easy. Drug addiction and periods of homelessness, compounded by the fact that he could not find work, created a vicious circle. A crime charge John received at the age of 19 in Colorado for conspiracy to sell / distribute marijuana made things worse. That charge, coupled with his blindness, made his job pool non-existent. Eighteen long years later, he was pardoned on charges by Colorado Governor Jared Polis in 2019.

“It was so difficult to solve a nonviolent crime that is literally no longer illegal,” said John. “I was almost unable to go to school because no one [in Washington] would rent an apartment for me. They said literally, ‘We don’t rent to felons.’ “

John transforms the challenges he has overcome into opportunities with Anni. You speak in schools to educate people about blindness. In the pandemic, John and Anni reached out to TikTok to connect with more people. You have over 700,000 followers.

“When we first got to TikTok, people were like, ‘Why is John here? He is blind!’ And I have to keep explaining that we are here to draw attention to blindness. “Said Anni.

Under the name @theblindwoodsman, John shows in short videos how he operates machines in his woodworking workshop and does other daily routines such as preparing food in the cooking series “Cooking with the Lights Out”.

John said they had absolutely no hope that TikTok would be a business company. “We just had fun with it,” he says.

“That made our customer base from local to literally international.” Anni and John managed to communicate that blindness is not a separation; Instead, there are various ways of expressing yourself through classic media.

Read more in the issue from 14.-20. July 2021.