About
The same day Hurricane Katrina hit, Tanya Vlach was driving on the other side of the country in Northern California on her way to one of the largest arts festivals in the world. At dusk she was fou
nd unconscious from a traumatic accident. Tanya barely c ame out alive, losing her left eye in the tumble, among other injuries.
Becoming this intimate with death, Tanya is driven by the consciousness of the fragile nature of life and her work is imbued with this sense of urgency.
Drop her a line: tanya@eyetanya.com
5th generation San Franciscan, Tanya considers herself a trans-disciplinary artist, having an extensive background in dance, theater, visual, and literary arts.
Founder of COLIBRITA Production Company, she has produced and curated several multidisciplinary events throughout the Bay Area.
RECENT NEWS: (11/20/09) Eye,Tanya is now a member of the Intersection Incubator, a program of Intersection for the Arts providing fiscal sponsorship, incubation and consulting services to artists. Visit www.theintersection.org.
lovely pic, the world always
looks nicer at night.
What a great site. I would really like to talk to you more and get an interview for my blog.
Regards,
Ralph
you are a fucking crazy lady!
Just found your site. My brother lost an eye in childhood to cancer, and I think reading your entries might help me to understand a little better about his world. Best wishes.
To Steve: Why is she a crazy lady? Was this just a joke?
I lost my eye at the age of eleven, I’m (ugh) thirty now, and have been wearing a prosthesis ever since. I have often thought about the joys a bionic eye could bring and would love it if you could give me updates on your search for engineers and any progress.
My own capitalization on the one-eyed life has been through the use of my old prosthetic eyes as a form of currency to pay my tattoo artist to finish my sleeve. Never was I happier to be a freak than when I discovered the joy of bartering!
I lost my right eye at the age of 6. I am interested in your project and would be willing to be a test subject when the time comes for that. I have emailed you. Please keep in touch.
wow, so many one-eyeds. i lost vision in my left eye from a BB gun shot when i was 15(33 now). torn/detatched retina. I had a prosthetic made but i could never wear it for more than a few hours without it driving me nuts. it sits in a bag in a drawer along with the BB. what a great site. that would be awesome to have a camera eye.
To the one-eyes out there, here is a question from a blind in one eye…
I suffered from a fully detached retina in 1983, a time when repairing something like this was still somewhat experimental. After two surgeries and some argon arc laser treatments the eye survived but I lost 99.9% of sight in that eye. It has been a “lazy eye” ever since but hasn’t given me a lick of trouble until three months ago where I had iritis with pain for a few weeks. The lazy eye thing has always been difficult to deal with especially when meeting a person for the first time and looking him/her in the eyes. I often considered having it removed for a prosthesis solely for cosmetic purposes, after a bout of iritis that my retinal specialists was surprised to hear was the first, I’m considering it again. If you had the choice of replacing your prosthesis with a living albeit more difficult for others to look at eye, which would you choose and why?
to Bob:
Hi, just like everyone on this website i am 1eyed.
Aksana
and i am just amazed to find this website and to see so many people who is going through the same as i am.
I hope i could help you Bob, somehow with you decision, however you wrote about it one year ago…
I lost vision in my left eye 3 years ago(i was 19), it wasn’t an accident, it was doctors mistake.
However, just like all of us here with some time i got used to living like that and it didn’t really bothered me until about a year ago from now. My eye started changing drastically, and bothering me. i couldn’t read much or be on the computer or drive. Being an art student it made it ever more difficult for me to continue with my education. so i said to myself that i cant afford it, and decided to get rid of my eye.I couldn’t be more happier with my decision.
not only that my eye looks great, for the most part it doesn’t bother me at all.
I look like myself 3 years ago, and sometimes only by touching my eye i remember that it is fake. No one has ever noticed.
operation is not painful and recovery is not very long, after a week or two i went back to school, and in two months after operation i got my prosthetic eye.
Being disabled is a big topic on this website, however i don’t feel that way at all. yes my priorities has changed and it made me grow up way faster, but i don’t think its a bad thing.
Very glad to find all of you guys here, and wish you best luck in everything!
I never considered the possibility of a monocular community out there. Neato.
I’ll be following along. I’m rapidly losing what sight I have in my left eye to cataracts and glaucoma, both related to a childhood cornea injury. I know it’s not the same, but it’s a weird feeling nonetheless. I’m 38.
Forgive me for not using my first name; it’s rather unique and I don’t want to air it publicly.
I was blind in my left eye since birth, having congenital cataracts since birth. When I was 10 back in the early 1970’s, the cataract was removed and I had 20/20 vision in that eye. It was short lived, however, due (mainly) to a detached retina when I lost vision in the eye a few months later. In the end, the eye was removed and I’ve been wearing a prosthesis ever since.
In 1995, I had an outpatient operation where my right eye’s lens, clouded with the cataract, was removed. Since then, I have been able to drive (well, that took about five years before I did so on a regular basis), though my reading speed is still slow.
In any event, I heard about your challenge to engineers on Buzz Out Loud yesterday. I think it’s a cool thing you’re doing, and I think it’s even cool that you are sharing your stories and thoughts about such things. While I’m not using my name publicly, feel free to get in touch if you have questions or such.
I’ve subscribed to your blog, and looking forward to reading it. Peace.
Very interesting.
WordPress connected a post from my blog to a post from this one. My blog is about our nine-year old daughter who died about six months ago.
My wife and I have been reading much about grief. One of the books is by Jerry Sittser, A Grace Disguised. In it, he says that comparing loss is pointless. Tragedy strikes each person and each family in uniqe ways. But he says that the process of grief and dealing with loss is very similar whether it is loss of a child (me), loss of an eye (many readers here), loss of an arm (a friend of mine), or the loss of a job (many others). I would recommend his book if you get a chance.
And thanks for the blog.
Good Luck! You are my HOPE.
Vítek from Czech republic
I lost one eye due to cancer 10 years ago and have worn a prosthesis since. I can’t make it dance!!, but I think it is a good enough match to my good eye that people can’t quite figure out what’s goin’ on in there when we make eye contact. Also, my doctor insisted that I wear glasses to protect my good eye from accidental injury, and he suggested reflective lenses instead of the trendy and stylish non-reflcective lenses. My wife says that the reflection from my glasses helps to disguise the prosthesis when people look at me straight on, and that initially gave me confidence. Now I’m old enough to not care what people think
I’m just happy to have the cancer episode behind me and to have hope for seeing my grandchildren. It took awhile for the golf game to come around, but the brain can make amazing adjustments. I’m also a better driver, having slowed down, and am much more deliberate and focused behind the wheel.
This is a great website – humans have a wonderful way of creating blessings from tragedies, and I wish Tanya well with her research.
I’d like to help her make a difference.
Wow, I am also a survivor of a BB Gun wound loosing my right eye when I was 13 I am now 37. For anyone who has posted they wear a prosthetic lens, like myself Randy Danz, Ocularist in Montclair NJ is one of the best I have found, I wear my prosthetic 24/7 and I cannot even feel it. For anyone suffering with an uncomfortable lens you need to pay Randy a visit. His office is located on Bloomfield ave in Montclair NJ. I hope that Tanya is able to help us with her research for future sight.
Did this guy steal your idea?
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/eye-spy-filmmak.html
check the book http://www.asingularview.com
Dear Tanya,
I’m an italian journalist from Max magazine and I would like to ask you some questions.
Did you already replaced your eye with the webcam?
Which kind of images you’ll film and which art performance will you make with the images you’ll collect?
What do you think the webcam can see that the the eye cannot see?
Will the webcam be permanente or just an experiment?
How your life can be conditioned by the webcam? Will you behave al the time according to the presence of the webcam?
I’ll write an article about your experience and your answers will be very helpful.
Thank you
Best regards
Gabriel Eschenazi
Hi Tanya, you are beautiful! My daughter age 4 lost her eye due to a fighting battle with cancer since age 9 months. It has been a long hard road and was very unclear in the beginning why she really lost eye. Then finally after all her cataract surgies, neovascular glaucoma diagnosis and her high fever that made her eye sink in her orbit, they removed her right eye. I think it was harder for me to deal with more than anything since I have 20/20. Your prosthetic eye looks amazing! I only hope that my daughter can get one that looks equal to yours. Please email me and let me know who makes your prosthetic. I would also love to stay informed about your new project for the camera. Thank you for being a role model! My daughter wants to model but is scared her eye doesn’t look to normal. I just keep reminding her she’s beautiful and can do anything.
Interesting to hear stories from people similarly situated. I’ve lived for around 42 years without my right eye. For many years I wore a prothstetic eye until I decided to stop and start wearing an eye patch about 7 0r 8 years now. For so many reasons I am much happier this way, outside of the seemingly coincidental boom of fascination for all things pirate! Not being the clever opportunist, that took some adjusting to.
I would be very interested to hear about your success which I do wish for you.
My best to you!