Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

No Travel Hacks Just Keeping It Real: Disability and Loving Life

| Filed under writing

Ireland 2026

 

It has been many years since I’ve written a travel journal. I am not going to try to outdo myself. This is because each time, I’ve traveled Nationally or Internationally, my vision worsened, contributing to how I appreciated and interpreted the experience.

 

Why Ireland? I’ve wanted to go abroad since before Covid. Mom expressed wanting to go often and now that I’ve returned from the Emerald Isle, , I channeled a little part of my love for her along the way. Touching  and having patinaed figures described to me, singing Irish songs, tasting the fresh and vibrant cuisine, and marveling over the pain, passion and  sorrows of the Irish people. My people. It is literally in my blood. The O’Conner’s immigrated generations ago. It triggered an inner flame I cannot explain, not revealing how powerful my connection is until I visited.

 

It just happened my best friend, Myla, went with her husband and said she would go again. Let us say the opportunity fell right into my Ireland loving lap.

 

I did have a few reservations, like my mobility. I am blind and also have joint problems from injuries caused by an allergic reaction to Levaquin and my post-menopause weight gain.

Myla, being a nurse, addressed my concerns, bless her soul and I decided to use the disability and wheelchair services at all the airports. While I could have walked , it saved my knees and got us through security much more quickly, airport staff know the best way to push through TSA and Customs clearance better than we could ever manage.

 

But wait, before we were even on our way to the Pittsburgh airport, my compulsion to over-pack    for our twelve-day trip clashed with my goal to leave as much room as possible and keep my baggage light.

 

I think I drove my husband, Jerry a bit crazy, asking him, which suitcase, the smaller one or the larger one? what about this item or that item? Will I need this or that thing? One pair of shoes or two?  Pairs of socks, underwear, and shirts?

 

He stopped answering me. I needed answers, so I asked Chat GBT. The AI convinced me to go with the medium sized suitcase and reduced my clothing to a manageable amount. It left me with just enough space to bring home a dozen small souvenirs and kept my carryon lighter than I thought. Myla pulled our check-in bags, Bless her. This was the hardest part for me to accept; I could not handle my own belongings and had to let someone else do it for me. The loss of control and letting others help rears up now and again and I did not expect it to be a beast during this trip. It wasn’t a constant feeling, though, so I powered through it and over-thanked whomever lent a hand.

When I shared my shame over needing the baggage and disability services assistance, she said,

“My Mom loved it, she felt like a queen. Relax and enjoy it,”

I love and appreciate my sister from Another Mother. So, I hung on to my chair and threw aside my cringe-worthy view of not being able to help myself enough in the trash bin along the way to the jetway, enjoying the ride.

by Ann Chiappetta | tags : | 0

When It Is Finished 🎨🖼️

| Filed under blindness

 

The question, how does one know when a creative piece of work is completed? I discovered this might be the same and yet be assigned a variety of judgements depending on the form and medium.

 

I tinker with my literary and genre pieces for months or years, depending on how invested I am in actually finishing them. I am much better at finishing drafts than ever before. It is due to feeling that the time I do have   is more precious.

 

It is different, a quicker production with my art pieces. I have this canvas board piece I’ve been making for months, not years.  At first, it was going to be a geometric piece, but as I began working on the elements and color choices, it began taking control away from my original design plans.

It kept speaking to me, pushing for more texture, more focus within the box, something more to draw the eye above and below the center. This piece wants me to be messy.  Take chances. Trust the process.

 

I wasn’t  sure when or where to stop. More flowers? Stems?  Fabric? Marks?

It would sit for days, even weeks without me working on it. I’d fall asleep at night thinking what it wanted from me and why I wasn’t open to what it wanted.  I began to doubt it would ever be finished.

 

When this happens, I clean, straighten up my studio. I puttered around, wiping down surfaces, returning brushes, paint, paper and scissors in their respective jars, bins  and drawers. I trolled Amazon and online art stores for supplies. I did not have a clue what supplies I might need to finish this elusive piece, but I trust my intuition, have faith in my creative core, so I distracted myself until all would be revealed.

 

I reached into a storage drawer to slide in some brown paper when my fingers touched the black netting I’d stashed away. Yes, FYI, artists are pack rats, especially collage and mixed media creators. I grabbed it and knew this was what I needed. Why it did not manifest as an idea before is a mystery. But thanks to my cleaning binge, I finished my piece.

 

Each art piece I complete builds the inner relationship with my creativity. I am still learning how to be more patient and push through the pauses while bringing a piece to fruition. It could  be because I am older now, more purposeful. I hope you like the art piece that has proven my efforts are worthwhile.

Main Composition:  vertical orientation  18 x 24  mixed media canvas board.  A predominantly mauve/purple-gray background. From top to bottom, A black, open weave net  drapes from the top to the middle ground, adding a curtain effect. A yellow ribbon runs across the top resembling a valance.

Behind the curtain, three prominent yellow flowers with black centers, painted in a loose, expressive style with curved green stems are layered atop a darker, cloud-like  background. The inner, centrally placed  window is decorated with Vertical striped patterns in black and white/light purple running along the top and sides, creating a frame-like border effect.

 

Within the inner frame are three yellow flowers with long curved stems outlined in raised wax outlines. A bug made with glass beads and  black netting sits at the bottom left corner of the inner window. Bordering the inner and outer window frame at the bottom are strips of paper mache in random, faded colors.

 

 

 

 

 

wall art resembling a window with black net curtains parted revealing an inner window looking out on three flowers. Colors are purple, gray, yellow and black. A beded resembling a bug sits in the bottom left corner .

art piece described in post.

disability Anthology Coming Soon 📕

| Filed under blindness nonfiction Relationships writing

So excited to share this promotional flyer for “DISABLED VOICES ANTHOLOGY COLLECTION: This Too Is A Life” edited by Tracee Garner.

The cover image of the book  shows diverse faces in profile. The flyer lists 24 contributors’ names and circular headshots arranged in a grid, including Tonya Gilchrist, Mizdanak, Elie Zameski, Tracee Garner, Kamilah Martin-Proctor, Christyna Hunter, Angel Ackerman, Katherine Schnieder, Annie Chiappetta and others. The text “COMING SOON” appears vertically on the left side. The flyer has a beige background with black text.

So much is happening it’s making me tired. Well, kind-of …

| Filed under blindness Relationships

Did you ever feel a bit worn out but also accomplished? This is me. Fatigued and relieved. Deadlines rushing up and being met. Planning and being rewarded for taking the time for it. That kind of thing.

 

Aging into the life of writing and now art, I do my best to pace myself but it doesn’t always work. Sometimes technology fails and time runs short or I don’t rise from my very comfortable bed when I should to complete tasks for the day.

 

When this happens, I shift things around and all’s good in the end. I can pull carrots tomorrow or grind herbs when time permits.

 

The Zen of this message is keep moving, keep crossing those tasks off your list and  tell yourself, “I did good today,”.

 

Traveling While Blind ✈️

| Filed under Writing Life

Traveling while blind is not for the faint of heart. It’s been years since I’ve traveled outside the good old US of A. The last time I flew was back in 2017 to Ontario with my guide dog, Bailey.  This time it is Dublin, Ireland with my bestie without the dog. The paperwork and restrictions just seem insurmountable.  The amendments to the ACAA, or Air Carrier Access Act in 2016 required additional and burdensome meant to identify the individuals posing their emotional support animals or ESAs as service dogs. The amendment instead put the burden of proof on the actual guide and service dog handlers. Additionally, air carriers added the forms to their websites and broke the accessibility to fill them out online with assistive technology, causing mass confusion about  the application to fly with a legitimate service dog, which wasn’t required prior to 2016.

 

It is the proverbial bad apples spoiling the whole bunch. Even flying within the United States and its territories has become confusing and based on what I’ve read and heard from other guide dog users, depending on the carrier, you might get denied when you are at the gate boarding the plane because of their own failure to process your application.

 

Anyway, without my dog, I feel  less agile. I use a white cane and a support cane. I am fat and feel like I haven’t been traveling for a decade, which is partially true. But I love traveling. The challenge is what I live for, like packing as light as possible. I think I will need to sacrifice bringing an extra pair of jeans for undies. I am a size 20 and my bestie is a size 10, so my bloomers won’t dry overnight. I will pack as many as I can just in case.

 

One day I will get one of those bags that  is the size of a carryon but claims to fit three days of clothes plus a pair of shoes, laptop, a charging station and an anti-leak water bottle holder. But I wonder if the perceived extra room   of this wonder of the luggage world includes a place for the supplements and OTC  treatments older travelers will need to pack.

I will carry and deploy the bib of protection so I can get three days out of my shirt.    I will set aside $$ for laundry services. Such is the life of a large Marge.

 

Ireland will require a charging adapter, international phone plan, disability assistance at the airport, and maybe a seat belt extender. I can’t forget my neck pillow.

Will it be hotter than expected, will I  bring the right clothes for the weather?  Will I even need the thick hoodie on this trip? It’s been warmer than usual over there. Global warming really messes up my planning, you know?

 

My travel agent reported some disappointing news regarding some excursions and my disability. I was half-shocked to receive denials from a few excursion companies because I am blind and use a walking cane. WTF???

I am still deciding whether or not to wear a cap emblazoned with “Blind Traveler” and a wrist tether keeping us from being separated. Tomorrow I will most likely order them from Amazon, just to be safe.

I must remember I will not be in the United States, that other countries handle people with disabilities differently. But, alas, I am a “entitled American”. Will I run away in shame when I am faced with a potential denial? Or shall I aggress against the status quo?    Hm, it depends on the best refund and/or credit opportunity. 😉

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #107: Interview with Ann Chiappetta

| Filed under assistive technology blindness writing Writing Life

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #107: Interview with Ann Chiappetta, Author, Poet and President of Friends in Art | By Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-08-24-2026/ 
In this moving episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA speaks with author, poet and Friends in Art president Ann Chiappetta about a life rebuilt three times over. Ann describes being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1993 at 28, while expecting her first child, losing her job, her acrylic furniture design career, and for a while her sense of herself, and the “angels” who pulled her back: her ophthalmologist, her rehab counselor, and eventually writing itself, which she calls a catharsis for everything she could not say about going blind. She talks about the ten years she spent delivering the Building Bridges disability awareness program to children in kindergarten through second grade, and the payoff of overhearing a child in a supermarket teach their own parent not to touch a guide dog.
The second half turns to work and craft. Ann recounts her nine years as a readjustment counselor with combat veterans at the White Plains Vet Center, where not being able to see her clients made them disclose sooner, and where a federal system’s inaccessible tools kept her permanently catching up, and the three-year fight simply to sit her licensing exam with accommodations, a fight she won and an exam she then failed twice before deciding she had given it enough. Donna, mid-fight with CompTIA and Pearson over her own cybersecurity certification, tells her plainly: “I totally understand what you’re telling me.” They close on independent publishing, the screen-reader barriers that nearly killed Ann’s first book Upwelling, how she writes by ear with text-to-speech, and her advice to anyone adjusting to sight loss, don’t give up, fight the good fight, and ask for help, including mental health help.

What’s In My Garden

| Filed under blogging

Tomato Day

Today was tomato day. What do I mean by that? Well, we’re putting up our own tomatoes for the winter time now that we can do it. We’ve wanted to do it for over 20 years, but we lived in an apartment and never had access to either the space, time or to the vegetables themselves.

 

It’s wonderful to live here and have a farm share nearby. We ordered a case of plum tomatoes and they didn’t disappoint. It weighed over 25 pounds. I got an extra huge stock pot a few years ago and I use it to put up the tomatoes. I spend the morning dicing them and cutting out some stems and blemishes and then I diced them up even more and put them in the pot and set them to simmering. JERRY has his part two. He’s the muscle of course. But he also does the hand blending in our stick blender in the pot and he does a really good job getting everything nice and smooth.

 

What do I actually put in the pot with the tomatoes? It’s good you ask. I use some fresh herbs, some dried herbs, usually basil, oregano, and thyme. I also use sea salt, a lot of garlic, both granulated and fresh and tomato paste. I try to use as little as salt as possible, but it just doesn’t taste the same without some salt. I also put in some black pepper and maybe later on I’ll add a little bit more salt or pepper depending on how it goes.

 

The pot sits there for hours and hours and hours and just simmers. Six hours is the minimum.  Hopefully by tomorrow morning, it’ll be cooled down enough for me to start putting it away and getting it into the freezer. I use those quart sized Chinese soup containers that Chinese food restaurants put their wonton soup in. I get them on Amazon. I get them 10 at a time and they seem to do well and they don’t seem to mind being frozen. I found that many of the storage bags that said they can tolerate deep freezing usually can’t they become brittle and then they break on the ends like in the corners. It compromises the taste of the tomatoes.

 

What else do I do in the garden ? What does our garden have this year?

 

Jerry and our handy guy, John, loaded a bunch of high quality topsoil into our garden  beds. Last year the soil we purchased was poor quality and our poor outcome was due to this cheaper soil. The garden meds are doing great. We have four different kinds of peppers: Italian dessert peppers, banana, bell, and sweet Jalapeno.  We grew four different kinds of tomatoes: beefsteak, San Marzano, cherry and an indeterminate  twice the size of cherry tomatoes.  We have potatoes, carrots, patty pan squash, and bush beans.  This year we’re trying strawberries, blueberries, and a three-year currant bush. It means the bush won’t be viable for at least two seasons.

We’re also trying watermelon but we’re not too sure how they’re gonna do because I don’t know if we have the right atmosphere for them. The birds also peck at them.

 

As for my herbs we are currently growing lemon balm, catnip, chives, basil, oregano, dill, Italian, parsley, rosemary, and thyme, hoping to expand the lovage  we planted but it seems difficult to start. lovage seems to be a slow and sluggish type of herb though it’s wonderfully celery like and it’s really great in salads and soups. It’s very tasty so that’s it for What’s in our freezer?  The freezer now has frozen beans, frozen corn, frozen, diced peppers and tomatoes plus it’s gonna have the tomato sauce and hopefully we’ll get to the farm butcher at some point and have some grass fed beef, chicken  and pork in there as well.

 

Playing with Stencils

| Filed under blindness

“Celtic”

4 x 6: acrylic on canvas.

The artwork is rectangular with a deep red or burgundy background. It features an ornate Celtic-style knot design in the center, rendered in gold/yellow and black colors. The interlaced pattern is symmetrical and decorative, with flowing curves and loops characteristic of Celtic knotwork. The are is framed in split wood dowels to give it a rustic and mystic accent.

One of the first tools I found helpful in my journey of mixed media and collage art is the stencil. It is a balance of preciseness while being forgiving. It’s like the adult version of not being afraid of drawing outside the lines. I also found a few tricks along the way. I tape the stencil down, and if needed, use copy paper to help keep the surface free from errors.  When a good image reveals itself once the stencil is peeled away, it’s like being a kid on Christmas.

 

There are also plenty of sloppy or poor images. I keep some of them for other collages for background and layering.

 

As for the stencils, any craft store, online or physical, will have a wide selection and most are sold in themed packages in many sizes. I would suggest starting with simple stencils first no larger than 5 x 7 inches and begin with acrylic markers and use medical gloves, as you will end up with ink and/or paint on your fingers.

 

If you do not like wearing gloves, have wet wipes handy, you will need them. If you want to start, just do it. Practice,  and let your creativity flow.

The Visual Artist Who Can’t See 👀

| Filed under blindness

I am asked how I make visual art without the benefit of sight. Being a writer and artist who is blind does not always mean I create alone. I am a collaborator, I get a surge of personal satisfaction when a group project succeeds, receives positive feedback or receives praise and recognition. It is larger than me, honors the hard work, insight and forethought of others.

 

Sometimes, though, I get stuck or run up against a barrier I cannot navigate when I am working solo. When it happens, I open my networking space and search for an answer. It could be a group, organization, small group or a good friend or colleague agreeing to assist me. My sister, Cheryll, is the photographer responsible for most of my book covers. I describe my idea and she sorts through her expansive catalog to find the right image. Other times I cast a line out to a wide audience, like when I wanted feedback on an article about blindness, low vision and participating in a choir.  If you would like a copy of the article, email me at president@friendsinart.org .

 

In terms of my mixed media and collage art, I get assistance with trimming, gluing and orienting myself. If you want to know where to buy various sizes of paper punches, including one that resembles a jigsaw puzzle piece, I am your gal.:)

 

I ask my family for the simple things like making sure I have the right color of paint or paper.  I use the Be My Eyes app for sighted assistance and AIRA is another subscription-based video call assistant app I use when accuracy is important, like for photos of my work. I use a product label scanning app called Seeing AI to identify a product, then mark it for easier identification. I use what is called RFID labels from a company called HABLE. The app is called SpeechLable. The adhesive stickers can be scanned and record a spoken description and saved to the app.

 

Jerry and April both assist with hot gluing because I like my fingerprints. 🤕🤕

Another ask is to assist me when choosing paint pens in the vast assortment I have acquired over the years. For some reason AI is not good at this unless I use white paper and draw on it for a color analysis. It is easier and faster to just ask a person. I still have not produced a reliable way to keep the fifty or so acrylic markers and gel pens sorted by color.

 

Things I do not need help with encompasses about 95% of my art-making and  framing and 98% of my writing. I do have a few trusted writers who love to help me with simple tasks like checking my poem is left-justified or formatted according to a journal’s guidelines if I am stuck.

Creating happens in a internalized, cerebral bubble but taking it outside the dome is invigorating. It builds my confidence.  I began collage with small panels and over time, expanded the size to 18 x 24 canvas boards. I started simply, then grew with the experience.

I gravitate to intimate art pieces but hope to grow with the process.

 

Visit my gallery:

https://www.annchiappetta.com/whispering-vines-studio

 

 

 

Wood wall art featuring a black bird accented in yellow and orange on a green lefy background in a dark wood frame.

 

 

🪼

My Artist’s Journey of Discovery

| Filed under blindness

A Mixed Media Journey

 

I am Annie. This is my journey of getting back into painting,abstract and collage art after thirty years. Going blind meant saying so long to visual arts, or so I thought. Now that I am retired and exploring new things and renewing my connection to the arts, I am inviting you to come with me.

 

It will be messy and my work might make you scratch your noodle, but it is my hands, fingers, and imagination expressing who I am that will hopefully resonate with you .

 

To view my gallery, visit

https://www.annchiappetta.com/whispering-vines-studio/

All my pieces are tagged with alt text for the blind and low vision visitors.

The first piece is  called “Swirl” It is one of my larger pieces, measuring 18 x18”.I used heavy weight watercolor paper, a stencil, acrylic paint and stamps. It is my statement to the labyrinth and Celtic designs.

What I learned from making this piece: purples and magentas compliment green nicely, stamping is much more precise and better quality than twenty years ago, and trying to get the stencil to release from the paper after I let it dry too long made me groan with frustration.

 

Each piece I’ve made has taught me to be patient, prepare and think about the statement I want to convey visually, and do my best not to be hard on myself when I do mess up.

Until next time –

The artwork features a buttercream and gold  shimmer paint background.  The circular labyrinth contains curved lines in green and magenta at the center, resembling a stylized maze. Surrounding these lines are eight large and small black, simple leaf  shapes scattered  along  the white space. The edge resembles a lace fabric design.